Heimsþorpið, hmm?

BEIJING -- The top editors of the China Youth Daily were meeting in a conference room last August when their cell phones started buzzing quietly with text messages. One after another, they discreetly read the notes. Then they traded nervous glances.

Colleagues were informing them that a senior editor in the room, Li Datong, had done something astonishing. Just before the meeting, Li had posted a blistering letter on the newspaper's computer system attacking the Communist Party's propaganda czars and a plan by the editor in chief to dock reporters' pay if their stories upset party officials.

No one told the editor in chief. For 90 minutes, he ran the meeting, oblivious to the political storm that was brewing. Then Li announced what he had done.

The chief editor stammered and rushed back to his office, witnesses recalled. But by then, Li's memo had leaked and was spreading across the Internet in countless e-mails and instant messages. Copies were posted on China's most popular Web forums, and within hours people across the country were sending Li messages of support.

The government's Internet censors scrambled, ordering one Web site after another to delete the letter. But two days later, in an embarrassing retreat, the party bowed to public outrage and scrapped the editor in chief's plan to muzzle his reporters.

Hann er indæll þessi hraði, maður. Spáið samt í þessu kerfi:

... in August, Li Erliang proposed a point system for awarding bonuses to the paper's staff members. Reporters would receive 100 points if their articles were praised by provincial officials, 120 if praised by the propaganda department and 300 if praised by a member of the Politburo. Points would be deducted if officials criticized articles. Just one report that upset a party leader could mean loss of a month's salary.

Það besta við þetta er samt að bréfið sem gaurinn skrifaði, og sem fór síðan einsog eldur í sinu útum allt á nokkrum mínútum, var 13.000 orða langt. Haldiði að einhver myndi nenna að lesa svo langt bréf, sama um hvað það fjallaði, ef ég myndi senda það til allra sem ég þekki? Minnir mig hálfpartinn á gaurana í post-soviet Rússlandi sem söknuðu gömlu vondu daganna, þegar fólk las vegna þess að hið skrifaða orð skipti máli. Illa grunduð rómantík að vissu leyti, en ritskoðun byggir vissulega á þeirri forsendu að það sem er skrifað og það sem er birt á opinberum vettvangi hljóti að hafa áhrif..

Og fyrst við erum á þeim nótum er kannske ekki úr vegi að benda á pistil ritstjóra menningardeildar Jótlandspóstins, Flemming Rose, ,,Hvers vegna ég birti þessar skrítlur":

We have a tradition of satire when dealing with the royal family and other public figures, and that was reflected in the cartoons. The cartoonists treated Islam the same way they treat Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions. And by treating Muslims in Denmark as equals they made a point: We are integrating you into the Danish tradition of satire because you are part of our society, not strangers. The cartoons are including, rather than excluding, Muslims.

..sem er náttúrulega kjaftæði, a.m.k. til hálfs. Það er allavega mjög erfitt að sjá þetta alltsaman fyrir sér í formi vináttuvottar, Hands Around Denmark o.s.frv. Hinsvegar er það alveg rétt að þarna er trúarlegum tabúum múslima ekki gert lægra undir höfði en hindurvitnum annarra trúarbragða..

Já já. Þetta er komið gott held ég. Ekkert meira múhameðs-skrítlukjaftæði í bráð, takk fyrir.

-b.