Beijing clamps down on news portals, ordering round the clock monitoring

Beijing has tightened control over online news websites, ordering editors-in-chief to take full responsibility for any wrong­doings and implementing around the clock monitoring, state media reported on Thursday.

At a meeting of more than 60 representatives from central and regional news portals, major commercial websites and professional associations, as well as experts and scholars, the powerful Cyberspace Administration of China listed several new demands on mainland websites regarding management responsibility, Xinhua reported.

Editors-in-chief of the portals will be held responsible for the direction of content, and the creation, production and dissemination of news.

All such websites must ensure there were staff to check around the clock that the new requirements were being implemented, Xinhua said.

Beijing cyberspace watchdog ‘orders news arms of major portals to close’

The measures came within a month of the sacking of Wang Yongzhi, editor-in-chief of the online news department of Tencent, the Shenzhen-based internet giant, after one of its reports mistakenly ran a headline saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping had given “an important speech in a furious manner”, rather than “delivered an important speech”. The error came on the Communist Party’s 95th anniversary on July 1. The mistake was generally regarded as a typo rather than a deliberate act by someone.