Media censorship blamed for milk powder scandal

Propaganda to blame
Getty Images via Daylife The now widely published milk powder scandal in China is already having a larger number of suspects, who will have to take the blame for hundreds of infants struck with kidney stones. The famous Sanlu Group of course, health officials and the many farmers who delivered poisoned milk.
Apart from the basic question - who did it - the question is also, why it took a month between the discovery of the issue and the general alarm that is hitting China and the rest of the world now. Latest suspect: the propaganda department which has ordered China's media not too report on any food security issues.
The China Digital Times adds from its earlier reports:

Could Propaganda Department: A 21-Point Directive On Reporting Olympics be the reason? The number eight point of such directive said: “8. All food safety issues, such as cancer-causing mineral water, is off-limits.”

Also, if you want to get an idea of how the Chinese government is handling the post-scandal media since the milk powder contamination was revealed, here are instructions reportedly from the propaganda bureau on how to report the incident. Translated by CDT from sanernanxun blog (original text is already deleted by the Internet censors):

Recently, the Sanlu mild powder contamination story attracted a lot of attention on the Internet. Now we are issuing some requirements for managing online news publishing:
1. Strictly standardize news sources, only use dispatches from Xinhua, People’s Daily and other central media outlets.
2. Do not make any headlines or features on this topic. Emphasize the government’s handling of the crisis and progress, and the care given to the babies by hospitals and other care providers.
3. Forums and blogs should not recommend this topic, not put it on the top of their pages, and the atmosphere and number of threads in the forums should be monitored and controlled.
4. Firmly block and delete information and posts that criticize the Party, the government, instigate petitioning and spread rumors.
5. Mobilize online commentators to guide the opinions. The general guidance should be based on information released by the Ministry of Health, and lead online users to support the Party and the government, convey the effectiveness of the efforts by concerned agencies.

It would have been only a matter of time, before the official media censors would have been involved in a case like this. This gives the very important issue a very interesting twist.

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