The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to these instructions as “Directives from the Ministry of Truth.”
Central Propaganda Department: The media must not republish reports concerning the violence in Kashgar, Xinjiang on August 20. (August 30, 2013)
中宣部：媒体不得转载和8.20新疆喀什暴力事件有关的报道。
At least 15 were killed in a raid on an alleged terrorist cell in Kashgar, China’s westernmost city, not far from the borders with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The Chinese government often couches crackdowns in Xinjiang in the language of counter-terrorism. Xinjiang’s titular Uyghur nationality is majority Muslim.
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.
