On January 13, 2013, a group of people in Beijing held petitions in front of the office building of the Beijing News newspaper, expressing support for the editors and reporters of the newspaper who the authorities had disciplined. On January 12, dozens of people in Guangzhou gathered in front of the Southern Newspaper Group to express solidarity with the Southern Weekend and support the value of freedom of the press. On the same day, some of the residents of Suzhou City (in Jiangsu Province) arrived at the tomb of Lin Zhao, who died in the tragic persecution during the Anti-Rightist Campaign and the Cultural Revolution, showing banners in support of the Southern Weekend. These activities clearly relate to the incident of Southern Weekend’s New Year’s editorial being censored.
Li Xiaobing, a Professor and Director of the Western Pacific Institute at the University of Central Oklahoma, said that since the new Communist Party’s leadership of Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, China has not seen real freedom of the press, but people want to have an independent media.
Source: Radio Free Asia, January 13, 2013
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/sd-01132013142859.html