Melting from Bing Dian?

Recent reshuffle at the top management of China Youth Daily, or CYD, was widely reported and said to be a full stop to the controversy surrounding the shutdown and reopening of Bing Dian, or Freezing Point, and the sacking of Li Datong (李大同), the then weekly's chief editor, earlier this year.

Former publisher of the paper, Wang Hongyou (王宏猷) will concentrate on party secretary work and be replaced by deputy publisher Xu Wenxin (徐文新). The duty of former CYD chief editor Li Erliang (李而亮) has been taken over by executive deputy chief editor Chen Xiaochuan (陳小川) . Chen is also the editor of Bing Dian. The reason behind Li's departure and where he is going to remains unknown.

According to some media reports which quoted "internal sources", the personnel changes are "to put an end to the controversy [about Bing Dian]", and Li Erliang was removed from CYD for "revealing too much news from top level sources" when handling the Bing Dian incident and for apporving the publication of a problematic article by Bing Dian.

Now, what is key is whether Xu and Chen have been assigned any special duty of clearing up the weekly and whether this would be done by tightening of control over it by CYD.

To many, CYD's value lies on the fact that it has more courage than its industry counterparts to publish, over the years, news reports that uncover social reality such as grassroots hardship and official corruption. Bing Dian has played a significant role in helping to make this come true through its in-depth weekly featue stories. In other words, CYD earns its reputation for speaking out the truth at certain times of sensitivity, a media norm which is rare in the mainland but crucial if the country is to move towards being an open society.

As the reshuffle looks like a top-down initiaive, the near-term prospect of CYD and Bing Dian is likely to be frozen. A probable scenario is that the new hands in charge would bring new ideas to the operation and even the editorial stance of the paper and the weekly. If any, it would take time for the changes to be made and felt. At least for the time being, readers would find the publications' editorial positions blurred.

Controversial articles relating to the Bing Dian incident

Background of the incident

- Amid widespread domestic and overseas debates on the closure and resumption of Bing Dian early this year, Chen took the place of Li Datong and has since been in charge of the magazine. Li Erliang, who managed to stay on in the crisis, has been working at the paper since December 2004.

- Bing Dian was allegedly shut down by CYD for featuring of an article by Zhongshan University professor Yuan Weishi (袁偉時) which had criticised history education by mainland school textbooks. Bing Dian is a weekly supplement in the China Youth Daily, which is affiliated to the Communist Party Youth League.