BACK TO WORK

Chinese Newspaper Back in Print

After deal ends standoff over censorship.

One week after launching a high-stakes protest over censorship, an influential Chinese newspaper resumed publication Thursday after striking a deal with the ruling Communist Party. The latest edition of Southern Weekly had no indication of the battle, which erupted after an editorial was rewritten to praise the party. Fuming, some staff stopped work in protest—and the melee soon spread as a call to end the government’s censorship of media. News of the protests spread quickly on the Internet, and hundreds joined in Monday—only to clash with government supporters calling themselves “new leftists.” The newspaper eventually struck a deal Wednesday in which propaganda officials promised not to directly censor content—and reportedly agreed to not punish editors and reporters for stopping work in protest.