The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.
All websites: Tianjin No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court today made public the sentence for Xu Xuezhe, Zhou Qingjun, and others suspected of deliberately assaulting, extorting confession by torture, and dereliction of duty (concerning Liu Xiyong’s [Lau Hei-wing’s] “3/19 Case”). Following the sentencing, all domestic media must not release information, instead follow China News Service’s draft coverage of the verdict. Regarding this, all large domestic websites must uniformly refrain from publishing, commenting, hyping, or linking, including China News Service drafts. Take care of online microblog accounts for Liu Fangfei (CCTV anchor) and other family members, and quickly dispose of harmful information attacking our social system and judicial system. (October 23, 2018) [Chinese]
Nine former prosecutors were sentenced to jail time last month for their connection to the death in custody of Stephen Lau Hei-wing (also known as Liu Xiyong, the husband of CCTV presenter Liu Fangfei) in March 2017. CDT earlier translated a censorship directive issued on the day of the trial. The South China Morning Post last month reported on the sentences:
According to a copy of the verdict seen by the South China Morning Post, lead interrogator Xu Xuezhe was jailed for 13 years and another defendant, Zhou Qingjun, for 11 years for intentional assault. Six others were sentenced to between 15 months and three years behind bars for extorting confession by torture. The ninth defendant, head of the investigation team Zhao Bozhong, was sentenced to four years for dereliction of duty.
According to purported court documents widely circulated online early last month, Lau was allegedly blindfolded and tied to an interrogation chair for more than four days, with his mouth taped shut and his feet stabbed with keys.
Close to midnight on March 19, 2017, the fifth day of the interrogation, the interrogators “folded” Lau’s upper body towards his legs multiple times until he lost consciousness. It did not say why Lau, 60, was being interrogated. […] [Source]
Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. Some instructions are issued by local authorities or to specific sectors, and may not apply universally across China. 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. See CDT’s collection of Directives from the Ministry of Truth
