Southern Weekend

Southern Weekly, also referred to as Southern Weekend (Chinese: 南方周末/南方週末; Pinyin:Nánfāng Zhōumò), is a weekly newspaper based in Guangzhou, China, and is a sister publication of the newspaper Southern Daily (Chinese:南方日报/南方日報).

Southern Weekly, founded in 1984, has its head office is in Guangzhou, with news bureaux in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu. The paper is published by the Nanfang Daily group under the Guangdong Communist Party Committee. It is printed simultaneously in many Chinese cities, and distributed to the whole of the Chinese mainland.

Southern Weekly currently operates upon 8 key sections: News, Defense, Current Political Situation, Economy, Environment, Culture, Supplement, and Comment, together with an editorial guideline of “Justice, Conscience, Love, Rationality”.

Circulation is more than 1.6 million copies, on average, which is said to be the biggest weekly circulation of any newspaper on the Chinese mainland. Thus it is considered as one of the most influential media outlets in China. However, as of 2007 it had the highest circulation in Beijing.

Southern Weekly is considered the most outspoken newspaper in China. It is strongly recommended by liberal intellectuals and is said to contribute to public democratic debate and the formation of civil society. The New York Times has described the Southern Weekend as "China's most influential liberal newspaper".

When U.S. President Obama visited China in 2009, he refused to have as interview with CCTV, but instead accepted to talk to Southern Weekly. However, the report later turned out to be pale and avoided controversial topics, which was interpreted as the result of authorities' pressure.

Naturally however, as a spin-off of provincial official newspaper in mainland China, Southern Weekly still relies on political support from Guangdong Provincial Party Committee of the China Communist Party. Its coverage on regional corruption outside Guangdong province will not be achieved without local leaders' support behind. As such, Southern Weekly could only go so far as to disclose political issues that are refined to regional range lower than provincial level, and reporting penetrates anything behind the scenes regarding to central party or the provincial Party committee is strictly prohibitive.

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Wikipedia