Beijing Journalists Stage Walkout

About 100 reporters at a Chinese newspaper have walked out in protest after the sudden sacking of their editor.

Staff at the Beijing News, known as one of the Communist country's most progressive newspapers, were angered two days ago when their editor in chief, Yang Bin, was removed without any official explanation.

According to Reuters, around 100 of the paper's 400 staff walked out, while Associated Press said the scale of the protest and its likely duration was unclear.

Journalists put a cryptic indication of their feelings into the newspaper with a photograph of a flock of birds flying through dark skies above the newspaper's office, with one bird out in front.

The image was accompanied by a pointed message: "The sky may not be very clear, but they will still fly into the distance with their mission close to their hearts."

Today's paper came out but had fewer pages, relied on agency reports and omitted a list of senior editors usually found on its second page.

The walkout rasied the stakes in the ongoing battle between Chinese journalists and their political masters, who are keen to keep control over the written word.

Chinese newspapers and magazines remain entirely in state hands, and in spite of an apparent relaxation of controls in recent years, analysts fear there is a growing authoritarian approach on the government's part.

But the internet has proved to be the government's Achilles heel: Mr Yang's sacking and the journalists' walkout have been reported and discussed by bloggers.

Even so, many reports of the controversy were removed from websites within a few hours by China's army of internet censors.

A spokesman for the Beijing News denied there was any protest.

"Everything here is normal," the spokesman, who gave only his surname, Luo, told AP.

The minister in charge of the Chinese cabinet's press office, Cai Wu, said newspapers must pay attention to the "social and economic effects" of their reporting.

Speaking at a news conference, he said newspapers "must play their due role to educate and provide proper guidance to the people. They must follow discipline and rules and regulations."