China said to have ordered coverage of Alibaba probe to toe the party line
Sources say news outlets have been forced to echo the official line on the investigation into the tech giant and have been barred from original reporting and extended analysis
China has ordered its domestic media to restrict their reporting on an antitrust probe into Alibaba, as speculation over the future of one of the country’s largest corporations intensified, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.
A directive issued by the government’s propaganda arm toward the end of 2020 ordered news outlets to strictly echo the official line on the investigation into the tech giant and prohibited them from engaging in original reporting and extended analysis or drawing their own conclusions without authorisation, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the order had not been made public. The restrictions also applied to Jack Ma, the company’s co-founder, the people said...
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