BEIJING, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Chinese authorities shut down a popular online forum after it detailed a local campaign to remove a village chief for corruption, Radio Free Asia reports.
The Chinese-language Yannan forum, popular among academics, journalists and rights activists, announced the closure on its Web site, RFA said Monday.
The site had carried extensive coverage of a village uprising, ongoing since July in the village of Taishi in the southern province of Guangdong, in which residents tried to oust a village head suspected of embezzling funds from a $12 million sale of public land.
Beijing-based rights activist Hou Wenzhuo said, "It really was one of the last resources left to us -- one of the last bastions of justice and social conscience for academics and rights activists alike. A forum like that is really very rare in China."
China revised regulations on Internet news content last week, which will tighten controls on online reporting of demonstrations and public protests.
