Elder members of Chinese Communist Party call for more freedom of speech

[News_Editor]

Elder members of Chinese Communist Party call for more freedom of speech

2010-10-14 02:23:27 GMT+7 (ICT)

BEIJING, CHINA (BNO NEWS) -- Elder members of the Communist Party of China on Wednesday called for more freedom of speech through a letter which was rapidly censored from the Chinese Internet.

CCP members Li Rui and Hu Jiwei wrote an open letter to the National's People Congress calling for an end to censorship. The letter came days after dissident Liu Xiabo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2010.

"The freedom of speech and of the press we now enjoy is inferior even to that of Hong Kong before its return to Chinese sovereignty, to that entrusted to the residents of a colony," the letter read.

However, the letter has been removed at a rapid pace shortly after it was released despite quoting President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao's own words regarding freedom of speech and how China has failed to live up to those words.

Li Rui is the former secretary of Mao Zedong and Hu Jiwei, the former People's Daily editor-in-chief. Both elder CPCP members expressed their devotion to freedom of press and concern for the safety of journalists and reporters.

"These veteran media professionals have not been able to speak their minds for so long that they all felt bottled up and frustrated...The situation with the press is in must change," sponsor Tie Liu said.

Not only average citizens are affected but even senior leaders of CCP too. Li witnessed the censorship first hand while contributing with the collected Works in in Memory of Zhou Xiaozhou. The collection would include an essay by Li written in 1981 but the old piece from a Party newspaper was censored by China.

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