Recently, the Chinese Communist Party tightened its control over the media. It issued warnings to many media, and shut down many online bulletin board services (BBS).

As reported in the latest issue of Asian Weekly, the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party recently issued warnings to three newspapers: the China Business News of Shanghai, the Economic Observer of Beijing, and the 21st Century Business Herald of Guangzhou. They were ordered not to report on negative issues during the next three months. The Propaganda Department then convened administrators of propaganda in these provinces and cities to exert pressure on them. The Propaganda Department also dispatched two representatives to the Nan Fang Daily in Guangdong to give instructions and set restrictions on the newspaper.

The Phoenix TV station in Hong Kong was not allowed to broadcast in Shanxi Province because it had reported on the corruption of high-ranking Communist Party officials- the Deputy Secretary of the CCP’s Shanxi Provincial Committee, and the Minister of the Communist Party Organization Committee in Shanxi Province. After this incident, the Propaganda Department ordered that the media not report similar cases of corruption, even if the officials had already been punished.

The Propaganda Department instructs the media to take care when reporting on hot topics, to strictly control negative news, and to prohibit reporting the negative news of other provinces. Some media organizations have even set the level of punishment for failure to comply with the restrictions. When the Propaganda Department finds fault with a reporter, editor, or supervisor, the Department also withholds several months of the individual’s pay.

In the name of strengthening students’ ideological education, the Ministry of Education recently shut down the Nanjing University’s Small Lily BBS and deleted all its data. Before this incident, many university bulletin boards, such as the Shui Mu BBS at Tsinghua University, had already been shut down. Mr. Zhou Ji, the Minister of Education, stated that most university students do not read newspapers or watch television news; the Internet is their main source of information. Zhou said that this is a new undertaking for the political education of students.