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Chinese weekly newspaper

Southern Weekly (literally Southern Weekend; ), is a Chinese weekly newspaper based in Guangzhou, and is a sister publication of the newspaper Nanfang Daily.

Southern Weekly, founded in 1984, has its head office in Guangzhou, with news bureaus in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu. The paper is published by the Nanfang Daily group under the Guangdong Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is printed simultaneously in many Chinese cities, and distributed across the Chinese mainland. Southern Weekly currently operates upon 8 key sections: News, Defense, Current Political Situation, Economy, Environment, Culture, Supplement, and Comment, together with an editorial guideline of "Justice, Conscience, Love, Rationality". Circulation is more than 1.6 million copies, on average, which is said to be the biggest weekly circulation of any newspaper on the Chinese mainland. Thus it is considered to be one of the most influential media outlets in China. However, as of 2007 it had the highest circulation in Beijing. Outlets such as BBC and n+1 have termed the newspaper as one of the country's most respected. When U. S. President Obama visited China in 2009, he turned down an interview with China Central Television, and instead accepted to talk to Southern Weekly. The interview later turned out to be pale and avoided controversial topics, which was interpreted as the result of authorities' pressure. After Obama then issued a letter to the newspaper praising its commitment to press freedom, the paper was forced to omit it in its report due to government censors. Southern Weekly protested by featuring two large blank spaces on its first two pages. Meanwhile, being a commercial spin off of Nanfang Daily in Guangdong Province, Southern Weekly also attracts audiences with entertainment, consumer oriented lifestyle and sports coverage. In one of the many incidents of the paper running up against the authorities, in January 2013, the provincial propaganda authorities forced Southern Weekly to run a provided commentary glorifying the CCP in place of the paper's annual new year editorial, which had been a call for proper implementation of the country's constitution. Journalists working at the newspaper publicly objected to this interference – which is an unusual occurrence in China – via Sina Weibo. The CCP's censorship order was believed to have come from provincial propaganda chief Tuo Zhen, a former vice president of state run Xinhua. On 7 January 2013, protesters gathered outside the newspaper's headquarters to support journalists on strike due to censorship, among them, Bill Chou.

Liao Yiwu, the author of The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories: China From the Bottom Up, a book banned in China which published conversations with China's poorest people, told Voice of America that Southern Weeklys editor in chief, deputy editor in chief and director of the newsroom were all sacked for publishing a discussion he had about his book.

Reportedly a large number of journalists quit their jobs to voice anger against the newly elected editor in chief, but later the Southern media group published a statement that said this was fake information.

In a national gathering that Southern Weekly held in Beijing Bayi Theater, Du Daozheng, the editor of a magazine called Yan Huang Chun Qiu, was awarded the most respectable Chinese media, but a central government propaganda office official called and ordered the award to be canceled. All related shots of the ceremony were also deleted.

The provincial propaganda authorities forced Southern Weekly to run a provided commentary glorifying the Chinese Communist Party in place of the paper's annual new year editorial, which had been a call for proper implementation of the country's constitution. Journalists on the paper publicly objected to this interference – which is an unusual occurrence in China – via Sina Weibo. The censorship order was believed to have come from provincial propaganda chief Tuo Zhen, a former vice president of state run Xinhua.