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.
Please prominently display the following articles in the headline sections of both homepages [that of the portal itself and of its news center]: (1) People’s Daily Commentary on the Liu Han Case: Cracking Down and Wiping Out Evil, Upholding Justice [Chinese]; (2) Ministry of Public Security: Xinjiang is the Primary Battlefield in Yearlong Nationwide Crackdown on Terror [Chinese]. (May 25, 2014)
请在双首页要闻区突出转发以下文章：1，人民日报评刘汉案：打黑除恶 伸张正义，2，公安部：全国严打暴恐一年 新疆为主战场。
Mining tycoon Liu Han and his brother Liu Wei were both sentenced to death last Friday for illegal gang activities. Liu Han is believed to have ties to former security chief Zhou Yongkang, himself suspected to be at the center of an ongoing crackdown on Party corruption.
Two violent attacks were carried out in Urumqi, Xinjiang in the past month: the first as President Xi was concluding a presidential trip to Xinjiang in late April, and a second more deadly attack that killed dozens at a market on May 22, and has been attributed to five suicide bombers by state media. The Urumqi attacks are two in a series of recent violent attacks throughout China, many of which blamed by the government on “Xinjiang separatists.” China has been increasing security measures throughout the country this month, and just prior to the May 22 attack 39 people were sentenced with terrorism charges in Xinjiang. Following the most recent attack, Beijing promised a “yearlong campaign against terrorism” which would focus on the restive Xinjiang region.
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.
