November 19, 2009
The Southern Weekly, one of China’s more aggressively investigative newspapers, was the only print media outlet to get an interview with Obama. Central government controlled Xinhua and CCTV did not get one-on-one interviews with the American president.
The interview was published in this week’s issue which came out today.
You can read a translation into English of the interview on Daily Telegraph Shanghai correspondent Malcolm’s Moore’s blog.
This afternoon, several journalists and news assistants at foreign media organizations reported on Twitter that their copies of the paper arrived today without the front page, on the back of which was the Obama interview. As Malcolm Moore points out, the interview “appears to have been carefully checked by the Propaganda ministry. Nothing controversial was published.”
So who removed the front pages from the news bureaux’ subscription copies, and why?
Who knows, but well-known Chinese journalist and blogger Michael Anti noted “Media, if you wanna understand complexity of Southern Weekend’s Obama interview, pls translate this tweet”
Rendered into English (with some help from Anti), the tweet in question by shifeike is:
Analysis of the results of Southern Weekly‘s intimate contact with Obama: The Central Publicity (neé Propaganda) Department is furious, state media is jealous, Southern Weekly is wild with joy, the Guangdong Party secretary is nervous, Southern Weekly editor Xiang Xi cried hard to get a new big chance, [former editor of Caijing Hu] Shuli is depressed.
The front page is also notable for the large in-house advertisement at the bottom that reads:
“It’s not every issue we have an exclusive interview, but you can come here every week to understand China”.
Update: The Wall Street Journal‘s Jason Dean has more about the missing front page.
Update (2009.11.20): Obama wrote a short note to the newspaper:
To the Southern Weekly and its readers ——
I look forward to continuing the ties between our two countries, and congratulate you for contributing to the analysis and flow of vital policy information. An educated citizenry is the key to an effective government, and a free press contributes to that well-informed citizenry.
Was it intended to be printed alongside the interview, in one of the spots occupied by a bottom-page ad? (JM)
- Southern Weekly (Chinese): Obama interview
- Malcolm Moore’s blog on Daily Telegraph: Barack Obama’s exclusive interview with the Chinese media