The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.
Central Propaganda Department: With regards to analysis and discussion of the new price fixing mechanism for gasoline, the media must not use material from independent investigations, including images. Only use Xinhua wire copy. (March 26, 2013)
中宣部:关于成品油定价新机制的分析、评论,各地媒体不要使用自行采访的稿件,包括图片在内,全部使用新华社通稿。
Caijing reports that the retail price of gasoline and diesel have been reduced.
Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to these instructions as “Directives from the Ministry of Truth.” CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.
Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; 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.