MEDIA TESTS LIMITS ON COVERING LEADERS' PERSONAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 011756

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/09/2031
TAGS: PHUM PGOV SOCI KCUL CH
SUBJECT: MEDIA TESTS LIMITS ON COVERING LEADERS' PERSONAL
LIVES


Classified By: Classified by Acting Political Internal Unit
Chief Susan A. Thornton. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).


Summary
--------------


1. (C) The envelope-pushing Southern Weekend
newspaper recently challenged a longstanding taboo on
reporting on the private lives of retired leaders when
it published a retrospective on the activities of
Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, and other recently-retired
leaders. Embassy contacts said that the paper was
testing the limits of media guidance by running the
story, but noted that guidelines are often ignored if
the topics are not core Party issues and are handled
with tact. One contact close to the paper said that
Southern Weekend was criticized for the article by
Guangdong media authorities at the behest of the
Central Propaganda Department, but that there were no
further repercussions. He explained that there is a
de-facto loosening of taboos on coverage of leaders'
personal lives in line with the Party's efforts to
institutionalize limits on top leaders' tenure in
office. Another contact said current relations
between the Government and media are a negotiation,
with the Central Propaganda Department asserting its
interests along with those of other bureaucratic
players. End Summary.

Rare Inside Look at Leaders
--------------


2. (C) The Southern Weekend feature on retired
leaders, carried on the front page of its May 11
edition, not only provided details on former leaders'
private lives, but reported the names of close
relatives and friends. Jiang's activities were
highlighted under a large color picture of the group
of former leaders while still in office and an
editor's note in bold type stating that the paper had
relied on previously published reports and its own
interviews to give readers a glimpse of what life is
like for the leaders now and "how they are getting
along." The description of Jiang's activities was
followed by vignettes on former National People's
Congress Chairman Li Peng, former Premier Zhu Rongji,
former Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference Chairman Li Ruihuan and former Vice Premier
Li Lanqing on internal pages. The editors expressed
regret that they did not have enough information to
include a piece on former head of the Party's Central
Discipline Inspection Commission Wei Jianxing.

Testing the Limits
--------------


3. (C) Well-connected journalists confirmed to
Poloffs the highly unusual nature of the article, but
said Southern Weekend had not asked permission to
publish the piece and was testing the limits of Party
strictures on covering the private lives of retired
leaders. Fang Jinyu (protect),former Beijing bureau
chief of Southern Weekend and currently head of the
Southern Daily Media Group's Beijing office, said the
paper's editor-in-chief, who was himself generally
reluctant to challenge the censors' limits, calculated
that since much of the information had already
appeared in Chinese media, he had a measure of
political cover.


4. (C) Nonetheless, according to Fang, the Central
Propaganda Department ordered the paper's
administrative superior, the Guangdong Provincial
Party Committee's Southern Dily Media Group, to
investigate the incident. Fang himself drafted the
investigative report that concluded the paper had
violated propaganda guidance that provincial papers
are permitted to carry only Xinhua reports on central
leaders. Fang said no further action was taken
against the paper and that the chief editor's high
stature in the Guangdong media world might have been a
factor. As the former deputy director of the
provincial propaganda department and director of the
provincial Party committee's information bureau, the
editor retains considerable influence. Further
attesting to the low-key handling of the matter, He
Jiangtao (protect),a journalist and editor for the
Guangdong magazine Southern Window, called media
contacts in Guangdong in the presence of Poloffs and
was told the paper had not been criticized and was not

BEIJING 00011756 002 OF 002


in trouble.

Line Becoming Fuzzy
--------------


5. (C) A slight loosening of taboos on coverage of
retired leaders' personal lives in the past two years
may have emboldened the paper's editor to take the
risk in publishing the story. Zhang Guangyou
(protect),former chief editor of Farmer's Daily and
longtime embassy contact said the paper had not only
protected itself by portraying the leaders in a very
positive light, but was likely mindful of changes in
the broader media environment. Zhang noted that Zhu
Rongji "talks a lot" to people in Party circles and
that media had previously publicized Li Ruihuan's
charitable activity and Li Peng's books. In fact,
much of the information recounted in the Southern
Weekend piece had appeared in provincial Party papers,
wire services, and institutional websites, while
retired leaders' personal recollections of their
government service have been reported in mainstream
media and are displayed for sale in major bookstores.
Since January, for example, Li Peng's memoirs of his
tenure in the National People's Congress was promoted
by China's official news agency Xinhua, Jiang Zemin's
visit to his alma mater Jiaotong University in
Shanghai was given high-profile treatment on the
university's website, and Li Ruihuan's financial aid
to poor university students was given major play in
the Tianjin Party committee daily.

The Shifting Ground of Media Control
--------------


6. (C) Providing the broader context for official
reaction to the Southern Weekend story, Fang said the
Party had recently severely tightened controls on
media coverage of "core" issues but actually loosened
its grip on "minor" issues. Coverage of leaders'
private lives was increasingly considered a minor
issue, if handled appropriately, and was related to
the political issue of abolishing lifetime tenure for
senior leaders. To underscore his point, Fang noted
he had recently written another investigative report
at the behest of propaganda authorities severely
criticizing a Guangdong magazine, Southern Weekly on
Prominent Personalities (Nanfang Renwu Zhoukan),for
violating media rules on a "core" issue. It had run a
piece on the 10th Panchen Lama's daughter and might be
shut down as a result.


7. (C) He said that a paper like Southern Weekend is
constantly in a "danger zone," disclosing that he was
asked to resign as the paper's Beijing bureau chief a
year ago to lower the paper's profile after he wrote
an article exposing corruption among high-level
officials in Guangdong charitable organizations. Fang
also said Southern Weekend had tested the limits on
leadership coverage once before, shortly after Hu
Jintao came to power, when it published personal
details on the new Party leader. At the behest of his
superiors, Fang profusely apologized to central
propaganda authorities and as a result there was never
any written censure.


8. (C) He Jiangtao separately agreed that the
Southern Weekend editor had taken a calculated risk,
but said that Party taboos on some sensitive topics
are often ignored. He explained that editors assess
the risks, make the call, and wait to see what
happens. He described the context of media control as
akin at times to a bargaining arena, with the Central
Propaganda Department asserting its interests along
with those of other bureaucratic players.
RANDT