Officials break up Southern Weekly protests

Police and plain-clothed officers broke up protests outside the headquarters of Southern Weekly, a Guangzhou-based newspaper that challenged the censorship and alterations of its editorial content last week, Financial Times reported. The officers dragged away protesters Thursday morning after allowing several days of demonstrations. The end to the lax treatment of censorship protests came as the year’s second issue of the newspaper hit stands across the country. Southern Weekly’s staff went on strike last week after a provincial propaganda official rewrote a front page editorial in the paper’s first 2013 issue. In a rare concession to the newspaper, officials agreed not to punish the journalists or alter editorial content if the paper went to press this week. In this week’s issue of Southern Weekly, there was no mention of the dispute, except for a small article buried in the back of the paper which said the Communist Party should protect “reasonable and constructive media,” The Washington Post reported.