The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.
Without exception, all media must refrain from reporting on the violent terror incident in Shache County, Xinjiang. (July 29, 2014)
媒体对新疆莎车县发生的暴恐事件一律不报道。
On July 29 at 22:00, Xinhua reported that a “serious violent terrorist attack” occurred in Shache County, western Xinjiang [Chinese] early on the morning of July 28. Xinhua said a group of knife-wielding “thugs” attacked a government building and police station in Ailixihu town, before part of the group fled, leaving dozens of Han and Uyghur civilian casualties and 31 destroyed police vehicles on their way. The report called the attack “premeditated and carefully planned,” and noted that police fire killed dozens of the attackers.
This attack is the latest in a series of recent violent attacks in Xinjiang blamed by the government on Uyghur separatists, and Beijing has been tightly managing information about violence amid a yearlong terror crackdown in the region and in greater China. Xinhua’s report came over 24 hours after rumors of an attack and crackdown in Shache began circulating (and being deleted) on Weibo. A report from Radio Free Asia quotes local Shache residents saying that the Internet has been completely blacked out in the area since Monday morning, when unconfirmed news of the attack began circulating online.
Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.
