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.
Do not republish the Daily Examiner article “What Is the Basis for the ‘Custody and Education’ Law?” Please immediately delete if already republished. (June 6, 2014)
检察日报《“收容教育”法律依据何在？》不要转发， 已转发的请立即删除。
The legal newspaper the Daily Examiner (检察日报) published an article [Chinese] on Tuesday questioning the legal basis for custody and education, a form of detention which mainly targets sex workers and their clients. The piece responds to the case of actor Huang Haibo, who was detained in May after being caught in a Beijing hotel with a prostitute. Huang was first put under “administrative detention,” then custody and education.
Inmates in custody and education centers–who have been detained without trial–must pay for their own living costs. A petition circulated last month to end custody and education. Although re-education through labor was abolished last year, it lives on under other guises, such as “drug rehabilitation centers,” while similar systems like custody and education also continue.
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.
