China paper censored for Tiananmen photo

By Anita Chang | Associated Press - via (uncensored) Yahoo! News
July 25, 2008

An aggressive tabloid newspaper has had its Web site censored and could face further punishment by China's media authorities for running a photograph from the still-taboo 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement.

Editors at the Beijing News declined comment Friday about the photo published Thursday: a black-and-white image showing wounded young men in bloodstained shirts on the back of a three-wheeled cart. Captioned "The Wounded," the photo was one of four that accompanied a profile of Liu Heung Shing, a former photographer for The Associated Press and Time.

Within hours of Thursday's publication, the photos and article were removed from the newspaper's Web site. Authorities also ordered issues of Thursday's newspaper recalled from newsstands, Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper reported Friday.

Phones at the information office of the Beijing city government rang unanswered, while the General Administration of Press and Publication did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment. Beijing News was available as usual at newsstands on Friday.

The incident shows the enduring sensitivity of the protests and their bloody suppression, even nearly two decades later. The protests and crackdown are only obliquely referred to, if ever, by state-run media. The ruling Communist Party has refused to disclose the number of people killed or allow a public investigation into events from the night of June 3-4, 1989.

Neither the photo, which ran on page C15 and which Liu took while working for the AP, nor the article mentioned the protests. The three other photos showed a man roller-skating by a Mao Zedong statue, young men wearing sunglasses and a couple chatting along a brick wall. They were part of a regular feature on China's changes since it began economic reforms 30 years ago.

The image of the wounded, however, is instantly recognizable to Chinese who remember the events of 1989.

Li Datong, a veteran state newspaper journalist who was forced from a top editing job for reporting on sensitive subjects, said the photograph was likely put in the paper by a young editor who was unaware of its background.

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