China 'forced papers' to scrap rail crash coverage

China imposed a widespread ban on coverage of last week's high-speed train crash, forcing newspapers across the country to scrap pages of stories, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Sunday. The Sunday Morning Post said that Chinese propaganda authorities had issued a censorship order late Friday, banning all coverage of the crash "except positive news or information released by the authorities". The ban came after state media published rare criticism of authorities over their response to the July 23 crash, which killed at least 40, injured almost 200 and called into question the fast expansion of China's high-speed rail network. "After the serious rail traffic accident on July 23, overseas and domestic public opinions have become increasingly complicated," the order from the Publicity Department of the Communist Party said, according to the Post. "All local media, including newspapers, magazines and websites, must rapidly cool down the reports of the incident. "[You] are not allowed to publish any reports or commentaries, except positive news or information released by the authorities." The sudden ban sent to newspaper and web editors forced the China Business Journal to scrap eight pages of its newspaper, the Post reported, while the 21st Century Business Herald had to scrap 12 and the Beijing News nine. The papers had planned special coverage to mark the seventh day after the disaster, the report said. The apparent ban was the second since the fatal crash, after propaganda authorities a day after the accident forbade local journalists from questioning the official line, according to the US-based China Digital Times. That order appeared to be widely ignored, with a comment piece in the Communist party mouthpiece, the People's Daily, on Thursday arguing that China "needs development, but does not need blood-smeared GDP". Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday pledged an "open and transparent" probe into the crash, as Internet users questioned why the driver of the second train involved in the crash was not told to stop after the first ground to a halt, and whether safety was being neglected in the country's rapid rail expansion.