Bitter Winter, a media that focuses on reporting China’s human rights violations, disclosed that a staff member working for a newspaper in Southeast China revealed that the media he worked for was not allowed to report on the coronavirus outside of the Communist Party’s messages.
His company received the notice from the propaganda department a few days after tgovernment locked down Wuhan on January 23, 2020. The notice stated:
News reporters are not allowed to report on or interview about the true picture of the epidemic, including topics such as insufficient hospital beds or suspected cases in the community. Instead, they should only report how the government sent supplies over and organized epidemic control.
All epidemic statistics must use the numbers that the “Novel Coronavirus Control and Prevention Leading Group” released. All articles must follow Xinhua or the Health Ministry’s news conference. Publishing a message that the government has not reviewed will be treated as publishing a rumor.
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Excerpt in Chinese:
據中國東南省份一家報社工作人員匿名報料，繼1月23日武漢因疫情嚴重封城幾天後，其所在單位接到上級宣傳部通知，稱不准記者採訪疫情真相，如醫院床位不夠，社區出現疑似病例等等，只能報道政府如何調配救援物資，如何組織防範疫情等正面消息以及必要的科普宣傳，以安撫民心。
上級宣傳部門還發布指令稱，所有關於疫情的統計數據都必須按照「新型冠狀病毒防控領導小組」發布的為準，每天的稿件必須按照新華社發布的信息或者衛生部召開的新聞發布會的通知，如果發布未經政府相關部門核實的新聞，就按造謠處理。
「在政府的嚴令下，記者不能到醫院採訪，根本掌握不了官方給的數據是真是假。」該工作人員說，「政府為了保密，連區政府、縣政府都沒有統計數字的資格。」
他還透露說，上級宣傳部的通知和規定都是保密的，至於每天發布什麼報道，都是由當地媒體保密員接聽宣傳部的電話收到指令，記在本上，然後形成統一宣傳口徑。
Source: Bitter Winter, February 18, 2020