The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.
Central Propaganda Department: The media absolutely must not report without authorization on the accidental death of State Council Information Officer Deputy Director Li Wufeng. Internet media must delete related speculative and accusatory comments as soon as possible. (March 26, 2014)
中宣部：国新办副主任李伍峰意外死亡一事，各媒体一律不得擅自报道。网络媒体要尽快删除有关猜测或攻击性评论。
The People’s Daily English Twitter feed (@PDChina) reported earlier that Li “fell to death” but that the “cause is unknown.” The original tweet has disappeared, but was retweeted by Guardian reporter Tania Branigan:
RT @PDChina: Deputy Director of Info Office of State Council Li Wufeng, 56, fell to death on 26th. Cause is unknown. http://t.co/YYASfuE6AO
— tania branigan (@taniabranigan) March 26, 2014
Caixin reported Li’s death on its website, but has also deleted the article:
Deleted from Caixin RT @weigu: Deputy head of the information office at China’s state council jumped to death Boxun http://t.co/JTRlTosyKS
— Jeremy Goldkorn 金玉米 (@goldkorn) March 26, 2014
Li fell from the sixth floor of his office building, according to Radio Australia.
Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to these instructions as “Directives from the Ministry of Truth.”
CDT collects directives from a variety of sources and checks 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.
