Chinese media blocked from reporting mining disaster
Published by MAC on 2005-02-15Chinese media blocked from reporting mining disaster
By China correspondent John Taylor, ABC News
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Chinese authorities have tightened media coverage on one of the country's worst mine disasters.
At least 203 miners died in a gas explosion at a colliery in the country's north-east.
It is one of the worst accidents in China's notoriously deadly mining industry.
Local journalists in Liaoning province where the blast occurred say government officials have ordered a local news blackout.
All local newspapers have been ordered not to cover the story and to use only material supplied by the national State-controlled newsagency.
The directive has apparently come from China's central propaganda department.
Meanwhile, the state administration of work safety has ordered a nationwide check on high gas coal mines.