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 Transparency International’s intention to give Caijing Deputy Editor Luo Changping [this year’s] Integrity Award, the media must downplay the story. Do not report or comment on it. (November 2, 2013)
中宣部：透明国际拟授予财经杂志副主编罗昌平清廉奖，各媒体须淡化处理此事，不报道，不评论。
Last December, Luo Changping began posting information to Weibo about bribery, fraud, and nepotism practiced by Liu Tienan, then deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection opened an investigation of Liu in May. Liu was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party in August.
Transparency International, an anti-corruption watchdog organization, will announce this year’s winners of the Integrity Awards on November 8.
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.
