China threatens to shut down Sina unless it 'improves censorship'
The online portal 'distorted news facts, violated morality and engaged in media hype'
China’s government has threatened to shut down Sina, one of the country’s most popular news websites unless it “improves censorship”, state media reported, in a rare public glimpse into controls over the press.
The online portal “distorted news facts, violated morality and engaged in media hype”, the official Xinhua news agency on Saturday cited the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) as saying.
The CAC will “seriously” punish Sina, with possible measures including “a complete shut down of its Internet news services”, Xinhua added.
CAC officials added that “censorship of user accounts has been poor”, Xinhua said, in a likely reference to Sina Weibo, a service similar to Twitter which has hundreds of millions of registered users in China.
The report did not provide specifics on which of Sina’s news offerings had fallen foul of censors, but said the CAC accused Sina of spreading “illegal information related to rumors, violence and terrorism”, and “advocation of heresies”.
Chinese authorities have in the past used “heresy” to refer to content related to banned religious groups, such as the Falun Gong.