China is moving backwards in society's quest for freer media

Is our society moving with the times? This abstract but important question was the preoccupation of our generation of Chinese journalists. We believed its answer would decide the value of our work, the recompense for our toil.

To one newspaperman, the answer was a resounding "yes". At the founding of in 2003, its then chief editor, Cheng Yizhong, said: "No force in this world can stop time! … Respect it, and history will be ours!"

It was an exhilarating time. was a first-ever cross-regional collaboration in the industry, a subsidiary of the free-spirited Guangdong-based Southern Media Group and , a national paper headquartered in the nation's capital.

Hopes were high that its launch would usher in greater freedom of speech and pave the way for political reform. "A cry from would shatter the stillness of this ancient capital city!" Cheng declared with such passion.

Ten years on, how things have changed. Late last month, the Southern Media Group announced that it had sold its 49 per cent stake in the newspaper to an office under the control of the publicity department of the Beijing Municipal Communist Party Committee. Hearing the news, a pioneer member of the paper said: "A decade of hard work, and all for naught."

In fact, in late 2011, the then General Administration of Press and Publication had already given the Beijing propaganda department "approval" to run both and , a newspaper under the People's Daily Group.

At the time, propaganda officials hailed the move as an "important measure to implement the central government's order to deepen cultural reforms", with the aim of "upholding the correct direction of public opinion, serving the public interest, as well as promoting the healthy and rapid development of the press industry in Beijing".