BEIJING --
Time Out Beijing, the popular English-language listings magazine, has been banned by Chinese censors. Welcome, ladies and gentleman, to the lead up to the 2008 Olympics.
The Times' Jane Macartney reports the decision hasn't been taken because of politically incorrect content:
The ostensible reason given by the General Administration of Press and Publications for pulping the June issue was that the magazine lacked a proper licence. But Time Out Beijing has published ever since its launch without completing the proper paperwork and this had never raised eyebrows among the censors who were well aware of one of the most prominent of the tiny number of English-language publications in the capital.
The English magazine was first distributed with the Chinese edition, which Macartney notes does possess a proper license. But
Time Out editor Tom Pattiston said that the timing is not coincidental: “The magazine has been impounded while officials look at licensing issues. But these have not changed in the past three and a half years and it is perhaps a strange time to question an issue that has not been a problem before.”
You can read the rest of Jane Macartney’s article
here.
This comes at a time when another popular listings magazine,
that's Beijing,
is undergoing restructuring. What I think is important here is the nature of things in China’s publishing industry. Given the
that’s name is now completely owned by the China Intercontinental Press, which is in turn linked to the State Council, the message is clear: the Chinese government calls the shots, even for something as harmless as a listings magazine. Ho hum.