The early release of well-known newspaper editor Yu Huafeng last week has prompted several of those personally involved in his case and many others to share their perspectives on their blogs.
Yu is widely respected for his role in operating the successful and groundbreaking Chinese newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily since its early days in the late 1990s and, it seems, just as widely seen as having been made the main object of official anger at reports his commercially highly successful newspaper published over 2003 on stories from initial SARS cover-up in Guangzhou to the brutal police murder of a student in the same city, a death which provoked outraged across the country and led to significant legal reform.
On February 8, Yu's lawyer Xu Zhiyong wrote on his Sina blog, ‘Yu Huafeng has come home’:
早上醒来接到向丽和喻华峰的电话，老喻刚刚走出监狱的大门，南方的朋友们在迎接他。我说真的想和大家一起去接你。挂了电话，我觉得自己忘记了说一句话： “其实你最应该感谢的是向丽！”当然，这句话也许根本不用我说了。时间过得真快，在向丽年复一年日复一日的申诉奔波中，四年转眼就过去了。
从来没有这样一个“贪污犯”受到自己工作单位同仁们执著的尊敬和爱戴。老喻甚至在监狱里还像他在任时一样发布战略发展意见。多年来，南方报业集团从领导到普通员工，看望他的人一群接着一群，联名申诉信一封接着一封。老喻是为南方日报集团受难，是为中国新闻自由事业受难，我为这样一个“贪污犯”辩护过，真的感到骄傲。
Never before has someone convicted of embezzlement consistently received so much respect and love from their own workplace colleagues. Even when when was in prison, Old Yu went on as normal issuing strategies and suggestions. During those years, from the executives at Southern Media Group down to the ordinary employees, group after group paid him visits, sending joint letter after joint letter of appeal. Old Yu suffered for Southern Daily Group, and for the cause of press freedom in China, and to have defended this “criminal”, I feel truly proud.
感谢所有关心喻华峰的国内外朋友们、尤其是媒体的朋友们，谢谢你们！但请原谅我暂时不打算接受采访，其中一个原因是我作为辩护人只考虑案件本身的正义，而目前喻华峰获释并不意味着冤案本身已经有所改变。在喻华峰获释的时刻，我还是要重申，喻华峰无罪，我们会继续申诉。
想象着南方的朋友们正欢聚一堂庆祝一场噩梦的结束，而这个走向自由的年代我们依然看到南方飘扬的旗帜。祝福喻华峰和向丽，祝福南方日报集团，也祝福我的祖国通往自由与文明。
2008-2-8
02/08/2008
Southern Group veteran and documentary filmmaker Zhou Hao has some photos of his own of Yu and his family's reunion on his SinoReel blog:
MSN Live Spaces blogger MaxiCool2004 finds hope in Yu's release in his Feb. 9 post, ‘Yu Huafeng released with a reduced sentence’:
“喻华峰减刑出狱”
也许是奥运的来临，报告Sars、广州警察非法逼供的《南方都市报》《新京报》前总经理喻华峰终于出狱了，我不再像以前一样一厢情愿的认为：中国民主有希望了！执政党要自己推动政治改革了。
喻华峰先生是以被贪污10万元被判了12年徒刑，且不论真有此事，还是莫须有的罪名！当初周正毅涉案3亿才判了3年，执政党如何可以让人民信任司法呢？既然确实贪污，又何必在奥运前释放他呢？这样司法有没有尊严？！
Yu Huafeng was sentenced to 12 years for embezzling 100,000 RMB, but no matter if he in fact did, this was still a trumped-up charge! The Zhou Zhengyi case at the time involved 300,000,000 RMB, and he was sentenced only to three years, is this how the ruling party makes the people have trust in the judiciary? Since that case really was about corruption, why then was he let out [at all] before the Olympics? Does a judicial system such as this have any dignity?!
From Sina blogger ‘Big Tiger’ on Feb. 11, ‘Law and order is like gang war’:
by大老虎
孙志刚事件推动了中国，或者至少是广州法治建设的进程，代价是广州治安恶化了一阵子。没有孙志刚事件，我们不知道强制收容原来如此黑暗；没有了强制收容，广州市民才知道强制收容维持着一种治安平衡。治安是有成本的，强制收容成本比较低；法治也是有成本的，如邓小平所说民主的门票很贵，改良总是需要过程，取消强制收容不是改良，是用了革命的手段——而革命，也是需要代价的。
许多人把南都案作为孙志刚事件的延伸，南都人被公开修理了一翻，虽然老领导都出动了，仍然没有改变几位重要人物入狱的结果。如果这里真的什么因果关系的话，那么真是我们的世界仍然很江湖的一个佐证。
Many people see this Southern Case as an extension of the Sun Zhigang incident. The Southern people got a public fixing, and even though the old leaders got involved, it still didn't stop a few key people from going to prison. If this really was a case of cause and effect, then it's also evidence of what a real jungle this world is that we live in.
MSN Live Spaces blogger Seismometer2006, who used to work at Yu's newspaper, doesn't see Yu's release as sign of any victory for press freedom:
上周五，喻华峰出来了。财经网的报道是这样写的：“在中国新闻界、经济界和法学界引发争议的南方都市报系列案（简称‘南都案’）终于翻过一页。”看了半天，我始终没明白，这事怎么就“翻过一页”了？难道如今真到了继往开来、大伙儿一起开香槟的时候？作为在南都做过一年杂役的小字辈，虽然级别仅为“少林寺扫地僧”，我还是情难自持，不揣冒昧地在博客吐两口痰，供人鄙视。
需要说明的是，这条新闻我并非首先从国内媒体得知，而是午间休息时在“记者无国界”（Reporters Without Borders）网站上看到的。由于下午还有课，只能稍微“谷歌”一下，发现《卫报》上也有相关文章。 与国内消息有所不同，英国人暗示是最近国际笔会（International Pen Organization）向北京政府施压才直接导致了老喻一干人等的出走。但最根本的原因，大家都知道，还是要算到奥林匹克头上。文章这样写道：The campaigning for the release of other prisoners…must be stepped up before the Olympic Games ，我倒觉得不如直接把“before”改成“only because of”更贴切。问题接着就来了，正如易卜生询问的“娜拉走后怎么办？”，我们也（拼命地）跟着问一下：老喻出狱后怎么办？或者上纲上线，继而把问题扩大化：奥运以后，新闻怎么办？
What I want to point out is that I didn't even learn of this news first from domestic media, but from the Reporters Without Borders website during my lunch break. I didn't have class in the afternoon, so I stayed and did a bit of “googling”, and I found the related news on the Guardian website. Where it differed from mainland news is that the English person hinted it was recent pressure that International PEN had levied on the Beijing government alone that secured Old Yu's release. But the real reason, as everyone knows, rests with the Olympics. The article reads: “The campaigning for the release of other prisoners…must be stepped up before the Olympic Games,” but the way I see it, it'd be more appropriate if “before” were just changed to “only because of”. Which raises the next question; just like Mr. Ibsen asked, “What will happen after Nora leaves?,” we are also (madly) asking the same question: now that Old Yu is out of prison, what now? Or more practically, and to expand the issue: after the Olympics, what's News going to do?
On February 8, exiled activist Liu Xiaobo, who writes often of the struggle for press freedom in China, published a statement, ‘Yu Huafeng's Release and the Olympic Year’:
程益中先生在俞华峰获释后的第一时间发出呼吁：“我热烈欢迎喻华峰光荣归来！但这实属减刑之后正常的刑满释放，不是平反冤案，不是改正错案；所以我不表扬有关方面。《南方都市报》案是一个时期以来思想转向僵化、改革走向倒退的一大标志性事件，是广东改革开放的一大拐点，是中国和谐社会的一道伤痕，我强烈呼吁广东新的思想解放运动，须从平反南方都市报案开始！”
[…]
随着北京奥运的一天天临近，国内外要求兑现申奥承诺的呼声也日益高涨。胡温政权既要在某些最敏感的领域加强控制，以确保奥运期间的政治稳定，又要在某些方面放松控制，以对外显示开明形象，降低国际压力。严控，主要针对政治异见人士、著名维权人士和独立民间组织，最近的吕耿松被判四年和胡佳被捕就是这种严控的明证。放松，主要针对国内外媒体、非政治领域的异见、维权和公共舆论，这种放松始于2006年下半年，不仅表现在大幅度放松对境外媒体的限制，也表现在对国内舆论的放松。正因为有了这样的放松，才会形成诸如“最牛钉子户”、“黑砖窑”、“聂树斌案”、“彭水诗案”、“城管打死人”、“废除劳教建议”等多个公共舆论潮，2007年也才会被称为“公共事件元年”或“民意年”。
这种严控与放松最具戏剧性的对比发生在春节前的2月5日。在这一天，因“间谍罪”获刑五年的香港新闻人程翔提前二年多假释，而浙江异见人士吕耿松被控“煽动颠覆罪”判刑四年。中共当局在宣判吕耿松的同一天释放程翔，显然顾忌到奥运年的政府形象，是为了冲淡吕耿松案的负面影响。果然，当日境外媒体对两案的报道，大都把程翔获释放在吕耿松案的前面。尽管中共政权在口头上最反对“奥运政治”，但在行为上却最想玩好“奥运政治”，他们根据自己对国内外局势的主观评估，挖空心思地玩弄“抓放”、“松紧”的游戏。“抓” 和“紧”是为了震慑和控制，以确保奥运年的政治稳定；“放”和“松”是为了政权的脸面，以争取在奥运年赢得政治开明的美誉.
The most dramatic contrast between this kind of loosening and tightening of controls took place just before the Lunar New Year on February 5. On this one day, after being sentenced to five years for “spying,” Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong was given a conditional release more than two years early, and Zhejiang dissenter Lu Gengsong was sentenced to four years for the crime of “inciting subversion”. CCP authorities’ delivery of Lu Gengsong's verdict on the very same day Ching Cheong was released was obviously in consideration of the Olympic image, seeking to water down the negative impact of Lu Gengsong's case. Sure enough, foreign media reports that day compared the two cases, with most of them putting Ching Cheong's release ahead of Lu's case.
MediaView blogger zany posts the part of the above-mentioned Caijing magazine article which lists the early developments in Yu's case, and ends with an old photo of a historical moment, the first printing of another highly-respected newspaper:
图片说明：2003年11月10日晚，（从左到右）新京报第二任总编辑杨斌、第一任总经理喻华峰、第一任总编辑程益中、社长戴自更正在看新京报第一份报样，翌日，新京报正式出街。
Indie blogger Wang Junyu also writes on Caijing coverage of Yu's case:
我记得军训的最后一个晚上收到短信说, 程益中无罪. 那时候我很高兴. 但是喻华峰仍然获罪, 程益中也仍然被开除了党籍, 于是仍然如鲠在喉. 如今喻华峰也终于获释, 看着 “财经” 网站上喻华峰和妻儿团聚喜气洋洋的照片, 突然想起当年读过喻华峰之妻向丽的文字, 说到只能欺骗儿子说 “爸爸出国工作”, 不禁唏嘘不已.
新年之际看到这样的消息, 我很高兴, “财经” 也可以高兴地宣布南都案 “翻过新的一页”. 个体的自由可贵, 自由的获得让我们高兴, 即使这样的自由或多或少是被赐予的.
[…]
程翔也于年前假释了. 这两天香港电视台新闻被遮盖的部分, 大部分是讲这个的.
I was happy to hear his news while ringing in the new year, just as Caijing was happy to announce “a new page had been turned” in the Southern case. Individual freedom is something precious, and the regaining of freedom makes me happy, even if it has more or less granted.
[…]
Ching Cheong has also been given early release. Parts of the Hong Kong TV News have been snipped these last two days, I guess most of it was talking about him.
Call Me Ishmael also expands on the Caijing story in Ishmael's Feb. 9 post, ‘Editor-in-Chief of ‘Panyu Prison Post‘ has been dismissed’:
《财经》网同时刊出了喻华峰回到家中，与妻儿欢聚的照片。
报道还透露：喻在四年监禁中并不委靡，而是大量阅读人文类书籍，学习英语，并担任《番禺监狱报》责任主编。
很少有人读过这份报纸，但这是一次令人高兴的离职。
多年前，我采访过国内的多座监狱和看守所，广东省亦在其列，因而相信喻先生得到了狱方力所能及的善待。
过去数年，南方报业集团旗下媒体大量报道了番禺监狱的新风新貌，该集团还成为了“广东省首个为监狱服刑人员设立阅报栏并赠送报纸的媒体。”
The report goes on to reveal that during his four years of imprisonment, Yu not only kept his spirits up, but read heavily of the Arts, studied English, and also served as managing editor of the Panyu Prison Post.
Very few people will have read this newspaper, but this is one dismissal that one is happy to hear of.
Years ago, I did interviews in many prisons and detention centers around the country, including Guangdong province, and that's why I believe that Mr. Yu received the best treatment that the prison was able to provide.
For the past number of years, led by Southern Group, media have filed many reports on the new look of Panyu Prison, and the group even has “the first media in Guangdong province to supply prison inmates with both newspapers and reading racks.”
And, Netease blogger Round Yao on the evening of Feb. 11 published a pre-prison interview with Yu that was allegedly never allowed to be published but has been making the rounds online ever since, in which Yu talks about the business strategy and philosophy that helped him make Southern Metropolis Daily into what many consider remains today one of the most successful and respected newspapers in the country.
