Censors have banned coverage of the first anniversary of the deadly high-speed-train crash in Wenzhou , Zhejiang province, in the latest move to tighten media control ahead of the Communist Party's national congress later this year.
The ban, which was issued 10 days before the July 23 anniversary, prohibits all independent reporting of the anniversary of the tragedy and it applies to mass media outlets and news portals, according to several mainland reporters and the Belgium-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
The crash, which killed at least 40 people and injured almost 200, drew criticism from the public over the rush by railways officials to bury the wreckage and over concerns about the safety of the nation's high-speed railway network.
Some journalists from Beijing were ordered to leave Wenzhou earlier this week after they attempted to conduct interviews at the site of the accident.
'The original plan was to publish eight pages for the anniversary,' said a Beijing-based journalist who declined to be named.
'And on Tuesday we received a call from the newsroom telling us that no [enterprise] reports would be published, and we were asked to leave Wenzhou immediately.'
The IFJ said yesterday that it was deeply frustrated by reports that China's Communist Party Publicity Department had blocked all media reporting of the anniversary of the crash.