Central Propaganda Department Forwards the Southwest Bureau Propaganda Department’s Comments on the Issue of Reporting on Bandit Suppression and Anti-Despot Campaigns
(December 19, 1950)

To the Propaganda Departments of the East China Bureau, Central-South Bureau, and Northwest Bureau, to be further forwarded to all sub-bureaus and the propaganda departments of provincial, municipal, and regional Party committees:

Hereby, the Southwest Bureau Propaganda Department’s self-criticism regarding Chongqing’s *Xinhua Daily*’s reporting on land reform and the suppression of counterrevolutionaries [1] is forwarded to you. You are requested to conduct a similar review of your own newspapers.

Central Propaganda Department
December 19

[1] Refers to the telegram sent on December 15, 1950, by the Propaganda Department of the Southwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to the Party committees and propaganda departments of the provinces and regions under its jurisdiction, with a copy to the Central Propaganda Department, regarding issues in the reporting work of Chongqing’s *Xinhua Daily* and other newspapers. The telegram pointed out that *Xinhua Daily* and other newspapers, in their coverage of bandit suppression, anti-despot campaigns, rent reduction, and deposit refunds, indiscriminately and disproportionately published large volumes of reports on these matters, regardless of whether the experience was mature or not, creating an extremely tense atmosphere in the press. Such an approach is not only unhelpful but harmful to efforts to divide, isolate, and paralyze the enemy, is highly impolitic, and is likely to cause deviations in practical work.