The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.
“Mass petitioning” in Yuyao. (@言小名/Weibo)
State Council Information Office: Do not report the Yuyao Daily story “Yuyao Flood Spurs Mass Petitioning; Minority Behave in Extreme Manner.” Websites that have already posted the article are asked to immediately remove it. (October 16, 2013)
国新办：对于《余姚日报》发出的“余姚洪灾引发群体性上访 少数人员行为过激”一文不要报道，已经发表的网站请立即撤下稿件。
Yuyao residents protested after crowds saw a TV journalist telling the camera that everything had returned to normal in the flooded southeastern city. Riot police were called in on Tuesday.
The October 16 Yuyao Daily article [zh] begins:
At present, our city has achieved a certain level of success in flood relief work, but the next stage of saving ourselves and returning to work remains onerous. Yet at this key point in flood relief, mass petitioning spurred by the flood has occurred, and a minority of people have behaved in an extreme manner. This reporter interviewed several city residents yesterday evening, who all expressed the need for people to treat this once-in-a-century natural disaster objectively and rationally, to put more energy into rebuilding, and to work with one heart and one mind to reestablish our happy home.
目前，我市的抗洪救灾工作已经取得了阶段性胜利，但下阶段的灾后自救、恢复生产任务仍然十分繁重。就在这抗洪救灾的关键时期，却发生了由洪灾引发的群体性上访、少数人员行为过激的事情。为此，本报记者昨晚采访了几位市民，他们纷纷表示，广大市民应客观理性对待这次百年一遇的自然灾害，把更多的精力投入到灾后重建中去，同心同德共建我们的美好家园。
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.
