South China Morning Post: Censors slap ban on top magazine

Authorities have taken the unprecedented step of banning the June 15 edition of The Economist magazine from being distributed on the mainland - as the issue contains an in-depth survey of the nation and an editorial entitled "Set China's Politics Free".

The Beijing-based correspondent who wrote the report, James Miles, said that while China-related articles were frequently ripped out of the magazine before it arrived on local newsstands, he believed this was the first time an entire issue had been banned.

"I suspect that because so many of the magazine's pages were about China - including the cover and the leader - the typical practice of censoring only parts of the publication was untenable," said Miles.

The China survey contains eight articles under Miles' by-line that stress the necessity of political reform, at a key moment of leadership transition, in order to meet the country's economic growth targets.

The articles in the June 15 issue contain opinions about sensitive subjects, including treatment of Falun Gong practitioners, references to the 1989 pro-democracy movement and strong criticism of the mainland's two nascent stock markets.

"It's always hard to say what will be censored," the Beijing correspondent said. "They often seem to rip out China-related material that's not contentious at all, in the absence of any comments from officials."

The magazine's circulation director for Asia-Pacific, Peter Bakker, said that in anticipation of the issue being banned, it was the Economist that made the first call to check with the distributor.

"We rang up China National Publications first thing last Friday, and they told us on Wednesday the issue was not legal to distribute," said Mr Bakker.

China National Publications is a government-run company with exclusive rights to distribute foreign papers in the capital and is the service The Economist uses for the mainland.

Mr Bakker said that the weekly magazine's mainland distribution was about 3,100 copies, and while about 1,000 copies normally available in five-star hotels were banned, all subscribers received the magazine.

Mr Bakker said The Economist would never alter the presentation of its cover stories just to please censors in China.

He said mainland distribution accounted for a fraction of the estimated 1.3 million copies published each week, and editorial policy placed content importance over pleasing any country of publication.

"If a story carries enough weight, our editors will put it on the cover," he said. […]