Former Chinese Journalist Leaks List of State-Censored Words

A Chinese national who now is living in exile in India provided Radio Free Asia – a U.S.-backed broadcaster -- a long list of what he says are sensitive terms outlawed in China.

Li Xin, former editor of the Southern Metropolis Daily’s online edition, said he took pictures of the file on the website’s internal operations system.

A large section of the list consists of terms related to prohibited topics, including the 1989 Tiananmen student protests and the Falun Gong organization -- such as “89 democracy movement”, “June 4” and “truthfulness, benevolence, forbearance.”

Other words are associated with controversial news. For example, “son”, “driver’s licence”, “Beijing” and “Ferrari” were listed together, possibly due to a 2012 Ferrari crash in Beijing in which Ling Gu, son of former president Hu Jintao’s top aide Ling Jihua, was killed.

Li said reporters and editors were told to make sure the terms listed did not appear on the website during the period of time when a related incident was drawing public attention.

Also listed were the names of several media outlets, including Bloomberg, Voice of America, and Radio Free Asia.