Danwei Picks is a daily digest of the "From the Web" links found on the Danwei homepage. A feed for the links as they are posted throughout the day is available at Feedsky (in China) or Feedburner (outside China).

A reporter's notes on the South China Tiger affair: ESWN translates a reporters reflections on the ordeal of gathering news about Zhou Zhenglong and his South China Tiger photographs:

On November 23, I was trying to confirm whether Zhou Zhenglong filed a police report. I was near mental collapse. At first, Zhou Zhenglong denied that he filed a police report. Then he admitted it. I went to the public security bureau and they swore in the name of the heavens that there was no police complaint. Then I obtained internal information from within the public security bureau that Zhou Zhenglong filed a police report. I went to the public security bureau and I sought out the police officer who received Zhou Zhenglong. He denied that Zhou Zhenglong filed a police report and he sounded so sincere that I almost believed that he was telling the truth. At this time, the Shaanxi province Forestry Department official Guan Ke learned that the public security bureau had issued a denial, and so he told the reporters that "he can help them to coordinate (that is, to verify that there was a police report)." I was going crazy. Guan Ke said that there was a police report but Zhou Zhenglong denied it. When Zhou Zhenglong admitted it, the public security bureau denied it. And they are all supposed to be on the same side. The attitude of Guan Ke clearly showed that he was using us and we were being manipulated. So we decided to return to Xi'an that day.

According to Free More News (zh):

On 29 November, 2007, the an enforcement team from the Shanghai Ministry of Culture raided the home of Minjian editor Zhai Minglei on the pretext that "someone had reported illegal publications." They seized the 41 copies of Minjian that remained at his home and removed his computer hard drive.

Minjian magazine is attached to Sun Yatsen University's Center for Citizens and Development; in story-telling form it narrates the growth of civic society in China. Its simple, warm style gained domestic admirers both inside and outside of the system. The print edition of Minjian was halted on 6 July, 2007, and its web edition was closed on 20 August.

Earlier: Journalist speaks out about the "death" of Minjian (CMP).

UPDATE: John Kennedy translates an account by Zhai Minglei of a raid on his home:

Three of them produced identification, two did not, and they proceeded to search through every room and every corner of my house. Even the paper in my printer was confiscated, along with my last remaining copies of the forty-one issues of Minjian. At the same time, they demanded to search my home computer. They searched through files on the computer, and even removed the hard drive which they took with them. The reason they gave was my involvement in work on the illegal publication Minjian.

Beijing Daily Messenger goes underground: From Interfax, an interview with Bi Kun, president of the Beijing Daily Messenger, which has relaunched as a newspaper aimed at subway riders:

We have been preparing for a relaunch since May, 2006. Last week, we signed a framework agreement with Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation Corp. Ltd., with which we have jointly set up a company to sell ads in the paper. Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation Corp. will distribute the newspaper in the subway.

The relaunch came about due to severe competition in Beijing's print media industry. Currently, Beijing has 10 large local comprehensive newspapers, and they don't differ much from each other. When readers buy one of the papers, they have no need to purchase another one.

Beijing Daily Messenger belongs to Beijing Daily Newspaper Group, which also owns Beijing Evening News, Beijing Morning Post, Beijing Daily and The First. Beijing Daily Newspaper Group has been trying to make the titles different from each other, with our newspaper set to focus on entertainment and sports news over the past few years. However, such specialization didn't make us competitive. After looking at the metro newspapers in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Nanjing, we decided to relaunch as a free subway newspaper in Beijing.

See also: Danwei's report on the Messenger's switch from news to all-entertainment earlier this year. via Editors Weblog.

Pentagon lodges formal protest with China: From the Los Angeles Times:

The Pentagon's formal protest was lodged by a senior Defense official, David Sedney, who called Beijing's defense attache in Washington to the Pentagon to accept the objection. The complaint focused on the Chinese refusal to allow the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and several accompanying vessels to make a scheduled stop in Hong Kong on Thanksgiving.

Two top Navy admirals on Tuesday sharply criticized the Chinese refusal to accommodate the Kitty Hawk as well as, earlier, two minesweepers, the Patriot and the Guardian, which had sought refuge in Hong Kong on Nov. 20 to refuel and to escape an approaching storm. Navy officials said refusing any ship safe harbor in a storm is a breach of maritime traditions.