The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.
State Council Information Office: Websites are not allowed to post the People’s Daily Overseas Edition article “China Will Not Establish Online ‘Political Concession.'” Remove previous posts. (September 27, 2013)
国新办:人民日报海外版《中国不会在网上设“政治租界”》一文各网站不得转载,已转的撤下。
South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday that Internet users would be able to access Facebook and other websites behind the Great Firewall within the Shanghai free-trade zone. The People’s Daily refutes this claim. “The Shanghai free-trade zone is a special economic zone, not a special political zone,” writes a researcher from the Ministry of Commerce. Read the full article here [zh].
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.