Mure Dickie reports in the Financial Times, from Beijing:
China’s ruling Communist party has ordered a strengthening of its news media propaganda system, dashing hopes of a more liberal approach to censorship in the wake of relatively vigorous domestic reporting of the Sichuan earthquake.
Party newspapers said on Tuesday that all domestic media had been ordered to “earnestly study and implement” a speech last week by President Hu Jintao, laying out guiding principles for development of China’s fast-growing news sector.
Mr Hu said the primary task of the news media was to guide public opinion correctly, since doing so would “benefit the party, benefit the nation and benefit the people”.
“[We] must strengthen political acuity and discrimination, maintain strict propaganda discipline . . . and properly guard the gate and manage the extent [of reporting] on major, sensitive and hot topics,” Mr Hu said.
China’s leaders have long sought to balance political controls on news reporting with the need to allow development of a more commercially-minded media.
