The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.
State Council Information Office: Authoritative sources covering the Xu Zhiyong case must prevail on all websites. Do not hype or highlight the story. Interactive platforms must delete related commentary, especially the two essays [by Xu] “Please Believe That Our Right to Vote Is Real” [“Why I Am Running for National People’s Representative” (我为什么竞选人大代表)] and “For Freedom, Justice, and Love—My Closing Statement to the Court.” (January 26, 2014)
国信办：各地各网站对许志永案相关的报道以权威来源报道为准，不炒作不置顶。互动环节注意查删有关评论，特别要删除《请相信我们的选举权是真实的》和《为了自由、公义、爱——我最后的陈词》两篇文章。
Xu Zhiyong was sentenced to four years in prison today for “gathering crowds to disturb public order.” Xu told the court it had “wiped out the Chinese legal system’s last shred of dignity,” according to his lawyer Zhang Qingfang.
Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to these as “Directives from the Ministry of Truth.”
CDT collects these 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.
