Type Daily newspaper Owner(s) Southern Media Group Founded 1997 | Format Tabloid Editor Liu Chen Political alignment Liberal | |
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Southern Metropolis Daily (Chinese: 南方都市报) is a daily Tabloid newspaper published in Guangzhou, sister to the Southern Daily and part of the giant Southern Media Group. The paper is known for its investigative reporting, which often gets it into trouble with the Beijing authorities. Its circulation is mainly in the Pearl River Delta area, contains Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macau but its special reports are much reprinted in many smaller regional newspapers.
As examples of the interplay between its relatively fearless approach and official consequences, it reported on the Sun Zhigang beating case (which led to the repeal of the forced repatriation law) and on the emergence of SARS at a time when the government was not wanting it covered. Shortly afterwards, several editors were prosecuted for corruption on what were widely seen as trumped-up charges.
In October 2015, editor Li Xin fled China to live in India, after, he says, national security agents pressed him to spy on human rights activists and dissidents.
The newspaper, along with the imprisonment and torture of the editors, Cheng Yizhong, Yu and Li, is featured in a chapter titled "The Newspaperman" of Philip P. Pan's book "Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China.""