The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.
State Council Information Office: Because online public sentiment is complicated, all websites must cool down the story “Song Renqiong’s Daughter Song Binbin Apologizes.” First, remove the article from homepages. Interactive platforms must not pomote related topics. (January 13, 2014)
国信办：由于网络舆情复杂，各网站对于“宋任穷之女宋彬彬道歉”的报道要降温，现报道从首页撤下，互动环节不要推荐相关话题。
Song Binbin, the daughter of PLA general Song Renqiong, publicly apologized for her role in the beating death of her school’s deputy principal Bian Zhongyun during the Cultural Revolution. Ms. Song was photographed with Mao as a young Red Guard, but later suffered as her father fell out of favor with the chairman. The article mentioned in the directive appeared in the January 13 edition of the Beijing News [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.
