Dear Editor,
Thanks for an excellent editorial on the emerging free press in China (‘China’s earthquake and the free press’ (SN, May 27). As you noted, a free press is important for the development of a nation. Unlike democracies like India, China has no tradition of a free media. In fact, ever since the Communists took control of the nation in 1949, all news has been controlled by the official news agency. Reports about local disasters were strictly prohibited. China remained a closed society until its powerful ruler Deng Xiao Ping began to open the society in 1980s a decade after Chairman Mao (the Communist founder’s) death. It was an opening that was welcomed as I found from my unauthorized conversations with Chinese in confidence and foreign students including Guyanese whom I met in Beijing.
