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Youth.cn Defends the Party’s Role in Media Control

As the recent incident of the Chinese regime’s censorship of the Guangzhou based Southern Weekend‘s New Year’s editorial continued to develop, Youth.cn, the official website of Central Committee of the Chinese Youth League, also joined the public debate.
In its editorial on Tuesday January 8, 2013, the website said, “Southern Weekend is part of the newspaper business of the CCP’s Guangdong Provincial Party Committee; it is part of the Party Committee’s propaganda work. During the specific implementation of the Party’s propaganda work, internal disagreements and even conflicts and disputes are normal. This has nothing to do with constitutional government or freedom of the press.”
“In socialist China, the newspaper is a propaganda tool of the Party. The Party controls the media. This is an iron principle. One can confidently tell the world about that. A newspaper’s role is to convey the Party’s principles and policies and unify the mass’s understanding. … A newspaper is the Party’s eyes, ears, and mouth. Southern Weekend is too, whether in the past, now, or in the future. Over the years, a large number of outstanding editors and reporters have emerged in Southern Weekend. They are carefully selected and hired by the Southern Newspaper Group, under the guidance of the Party. They are also the Party’s journalists.”
Source: Radio Free Asia, January 8, 2013
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jz-01082013150812.html