The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.
Central Propaganda Department: Regarding the trans-provincial criminal detention of a New Express journalist in Changsha, the media are not to continue reporting on the issue for the time being, and must strengthen management of official and journalists’ individual Weibo accounts. (October 23, 2013)
中宣部：关于新快报记者被长沙警方跨省刑事拘留一事，各媒体暂不要跟进报道，并加强对官微及记者个人微博的管理。
New Express has repeated its plea for Chen’s release on today’s front page.
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.
