Though many details of the agreement remain unclear, reports said editors who had gone on strike have agreed to return to work and will publish the next edition of the Southern Weekly as usual on Thursday.

Quoting sources close to the negotiations, some reports said staff who walked off the job would not face punishment and the government would agree to loosen press controls that many journalists saw as excessive.

Doug Young, a journalism professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, says that the apparent concessions were likely the best possible outcome for the journalists.