State Media Editorial Calling for Political Choice Gets Censored

On August 26, 2011, Shanghai’s Oriental Morning Post (东方早报) published an editorial called, “Give the People Choice, Give Everyone a Way Out.” (给人民选择权，给所有人退路). Some excerpts: 

Everything that has occurred in Libya to date only further reinforces an ancient political proposition: If the people are not given the right to choose, the path to peaceful mediated transformation is blocked, and all leeway for the public, including for those who hold power, is eliminated.
. . . .
Gaddafi's mistake was a kind of ancient chronic illness that has been seen repeatedly in people throughout the ages, "The people of the Qin Dynasty were too preoccupied for self-pity, but instead were pitied by subsequent generations. But those generations pitied the Qin without drawing lessons from its fate, and this lead to each future generation repeatedly pitying the previous generation." Unless the people are gradually but resolutely granted the right to choose, society is faced with the terrifying prospect of being left with path for escape, and ultimately every social transformation will lead inevitably to a nightmare of suffocation.

迄今为止在利比亚发生的一切，只是再次证明了一个千古皆然的政治命题：不给人民选择的权利，就堵死了和平协商的变革路径，也会堵死包括掌权者在内的整个社会的退路。
. . . .
卡扎菲的错误，是一种古老的痼疾，前有古人，后有来者，“秦人不暇自哀，而后人哀之，后人哀之而不鉴之，亦使后人而复哀后人也”。除非逐步但坚决地给人民选择的权利，否则，全社会退无可退的可怕图景，终会是每个转型社会挥之不去的梦魇。

These screenshots show that the article had been deleted from the website by August 30, 2011. Original URL: http://www.dfdaily.com/html/8698/2011/8/26/654801.shtml

These screenshots were show two instances where posts about the article were deleted from the blogging services of the Global Times and Sina.com.

This screenshot was taken on September 1, 2011, and shows that a search for the title of the editorial on Yahoo.cn returned a notice saying that "Web pages that do not comply with relevant laws and regulations have already been filtered!" (已经过滤了不符合相关法律和法规的网页！)