China orders media giant Sina to ‘improve censorship’ or be shut down

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. 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 rumours, violence and terrorism”, and “advocation of heresies”.

Censorship of user accounts has been poor.

Xinhua said, in a likely reference to Sina Weibo which has hundreds of millions of registered users in China

Chinese authorities have in the past used “heresy” to refer to content related to banned religious groups, such as the Falun Gong. The Chinese government generally operates its control over media behind the scenes, with secret directives on how to report stories. Journalists who disobey or leak the orders can be punished. Controls have tightened under China’s current president Xi Jinping. The France-based group Reporters Without Borders ranked China 175 out of 180 countries in its 2014 worldwide index of press freedom.