China Stops the Presses, Again

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China's leadership is drafting an overhaul of its communist-era constitution that would include guarantees of private-property rights. But freedom of the press will probably not be part of any charter-reform package. In its latest attempt to rein in the country's increasingly boisterous media, the Party's Publicity Department—formerly the Ministry of Propaganda—this month ordered the closure of the Beijing New Times newspaper after it ran an article criticizing China's congress. The department also forbade coverage of other sensitive topics, including Jiang Yanyong, the doctor who exposed the government's cover-up of the SARS epidemic; separatist movements in Tibet and Xinjiang; the financial scandal swirling around Shanghai tycoon Zhou Zhengyi, and avian flu, which has broken out twice in China in the past five years and can kill humans.

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The media muzzling comes as a nasty shock to Chinese publications, which were being granted greater latitude by leaders anxious to atone for having concealed the extent of the SARS crisis. In recent weeks, newspapers have called for more oversight of political leaders and exposed the case of a young graphic designer beaten to death in police custody. But the Beijing New Times, apparently stepped over the line with a commentary called "China's Seven Disgusting Things," which accused the National People's Congress of being undemocratic and asked, "who elected these delegates, and how?"

Another press-corps sin now deemed unacceptable: pestering officials in public. During a mid-June news conference, a Beijing reporter embarrassed China's Executive Vice Minister of Health, Gao Qiang, by quoting back to him two of his contradictory statements and then asking which was true. "The Publicity Department said that's even worse than what foreign reporters do," says the editor of a party-run newspaper. Authorities are now reviewing all of the country's newspapers and magazines and may close down other transgressors. So much for the new era of openness that many viewed as the only welcome side effect of SARS.