An international press freedom group has called on Beijing to stop violating the rights of reporters and respect freedom of speech on the eve of the mainland's 'Journalists' Day' today.
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders hit out at mainland authorities over their appalling record on press freedom - with 33 journalists in detention, several dozen injured and one killed in various assaults by unidentified persons this year.
To illustrate the scope of the central government's editorial control, Reporters Without Borders yesterday published a guideline which the Publicity Department was said to have sent to mainland media before last month's Communist Party Congress in Beijing.
In it, authorities explicitly ordered journalists to censor many news items and to censor themselves.
'The message is a clear call to order,' the press freedom group said.
'It explains that when a note entitled 'reporting ban' is issued, the media are strictly forbidden to publish any report on the subject.
Similarly, when a note is sent to news media saying 'do not send reporter', it means they are forbidden to cover the story themselves and must limit themselves to using the reports of the government news agency Xinhua.