Ministry of Truth

真理部 (zhēn lǐ bù): Ministry of Truth

The “Ministry of Truth” refers collectively to the Central Propaganda Department, the Internet Affairs Office of the SCIO and all other subordinate bodies involved in propaganda controls.

The Central Propaganda Department ensures that media and cultural content follows the official line as mandated by the Communist Party. Below the Central Propaganda Department is the State Council Information Office (SCIO), which manages the “Internet Affairs Bureau” responsible for overseeing all websites that publish news.

This “Internet Affairs Bureau” sends out specific instructions to all large news websites daily, and often multiple times per day. These instructions can take several forms. They may be directives to not report certain events, or they may restrict reporting of an event to the reprinting of Xinhua News reports, or they may somewhat vaguely require a news agency to not “play up” a certain event.

The term “Ministry of Truth” has its origin in George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. In that novel the Ministry of Truth’s purpose is to rewrite history and manufacture “truth” to help the Party achieve its aims.

Many of China's "Ministry of Truth" directives are printed on CDT; for example, here is an edict concerning the media reporting of Google’s refusal to censor search results.

See here for other "Ministry of Truth" notices via CDT.

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