Authorities Increase News and Political Censorship in Run-Up to NPC, CPPCC Sessions

March 31, 2006

The Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications Task Force held a teleconference in January 2006 and notified "relevant agencies" that they should "purify the publishing market" and be on duty 24 hours a day during the annual plenary sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which concluded on March 13, according to a January 19 Chinese Readers' Digest article (in Chinese) on the Guangming Daily Web site.

The Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications Task Force held a teleconference in January 2006 and notified "relevant agencies" that they should "purify the publishing market" and be on duty 24 hours a day during the annual plenary sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which concluded on March 13, according to a January 19 Chinese Readers' Digest article (in Chinese) on the Guangming Daily Web site.

Government officials in Zhongshan city, Guangdong province, issued a Circular Regarding Rectifying the Publishing Market and Cultural Entertainment Market to Create a Good Cultural Environment for New Year’s, Spring Festival, and the "Two Meetings" on January 4, calling on local customs, traffic, press and publication, and commercial agencies to step up their enforcement measures against "harmful information," including "political illegal publications."

Chinese authorities caught at least "seven or eight" unauthorized newspapers attempting to register to cover the meetings of the NPC and CPPCC, according to a February 20 article (in Chinese) in Xinhua's Outlook Weekly. This news follows a Xinhua report in January that the government had banned 79 newspapers in 2005 for not having a government-issued publishing license.

Chinese authorities in Henan province launched a crackdown on political publications and Falun Gong materials in order to "ensure the health and stability of the publications market" during the NPC and CPPCC meetings, according to a February 23 report in the Henan Daily (in Chinese, via Xinhua).