Guangdong chief offers deal in Chinese paper censorship row: source

GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - The Communist Party chief of Guangdong province stepped in to mediate a standoff over censorship at a Chinese newspaper on Tuesday, a source said, in a potentially encouraging sign for press freedoms in China.

The source close to the Guangdong Party Committee said Hu Chunhua, a rising political star in China who just took over leadership of Guangdong province last month, had offered a solution to the dispute that led to some staff at the Southern Weekly going on strike.

The drama began late last week when reporters at the liberal paper accused censors of replacing a New Year letter to readers that called for a constitutional government with another piece lauding the party's achievements.

Under Mr Hu's deal, the source said, newspaper workers would end their strike and return to work, the paper would print as normal this week, and no one would face punishment. "Guangdong's Hu personally stepped in to resolve this," the source said.