The following censorship instruction, issued to the media by government authorities, has been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.
Do not let news of Malaysia Airlines [Flight 17] surpass reports on [President] Xi and [Premier] Li in headline placement location. (July 17, 2014)
航新闻不允许超越习、李报道置于头条。
The screenshot to the right, taken on Jul 18, 16:00 PST, shows that Sina’s news portal has followed suit. The first headline reads “Xi Jinping in Argentina; Countries Will Sign Multi-Domain Cooperation Agreements.” Next in line, “Li Keqiang: Organization Mechanism Innovation a Bonus in Itself.” Finally: “Obama: Malaysia Air Flight Shot Down by Guided Missile in Armed Pro-Russian Region,” and “Malaysia Airlines Denies MH17 Flew Over Conflict Zone to Save Fuel.”
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 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.
