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: Regarding the Guo Feixiong case, we have not yet unified plans. Absolutely do not investigate, report, or comment without prior authorization. (October 25, 2013)
中宣部：关于郭飞雄案，未经统一安排，一律不得擅自采访报道评论。
Yang Maodong, who goes by the pen name Guo Feixiong, is a writer and dissident who was detained on August 8. He was not formally arrested until September 12th. His family worries that he is being tortured.
[Editor’s note: this post originally reported that Yang was formally arrested on October 17th.]
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.
