Thursday, February 16, 2006

Before you get too excited about the return of Freezing Point . . .

This came in from the BBC about two hours ago: "China has decided to allow the re-opening of an investigative newspaper shut down last month, its editor has said. The Bingdian (Freezing Point) will hit news stands on 1 March, Li Datong said."

Good news, right?

Wrong.

"Mr. Li said he was called in on Thursday to be informed about the decision to revive the Bingdian, which is a supplement of the China Youth Daily. He said he was also told that he and his deputy editor Lu Yuegang no longer had their jobs there, but were being transferred to the paper's news research office" (emphasis mine).

In other words, the Communists will bring back Freezing Point, but it will be all warm and fuzzy for the cadres.

Just in case you don't take my word for it, here is Li's: "The soul of Bingdian has been extinguished. Only a shell is left. If the staff decided to protest, no-one will do the job. It will be an empty paper on 1 March."

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