The replacement of Southern Weekly's New Year's editorial by Guangdong propaganda officials has caused an uproar. The weekly newspaper's "New Year Greeting," an annual tradition at the reform-minded publication, was removed by provincial propaganda officials without the knowledge of editors. Journalists at the paper said they were outraged that officials ordered changes to the first edition of the new year without the consent of the page editor, who had already signed off and left work. Net users took to their blogs and Weibo accounts to discuss the censorship and point out factual errors in the new piece, believed to have been written by provincial propaganda chief Tuo Zhen. Accordingly, Net censors began to delete posts that showed sympathy for the newspaper. The original editorial called for proper implementation of the constitution, but this was changed to an editorial with the headline "We are closer than ever before to our dreams." Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying was asked about the episode on January 4 by a Japanese reporter. She said she was not familiar with the situation, but said there was no news censorship in the country. The government would protect press freedom according to the law, Hua said.

Original article on Global Times