Censorship defines the environment in which the Chinese press has operated since the late nineteenth century. China's print and broadcast media, journals, books, television, movies, literature, arts, and cultural establishments are controlled by the Communist Party. As a matter of control, newspapers have a strict editing system. The Central Committee Secretariat inspects important manuscripts at the People's Daily. The provincial CCP secretaries supervise propaganda work in the provincial newspaper articles. For editors and journalists, in the danger of post-publication, the punishment ranges from writing self-criticism to imprisonment. What is forbidden
Theoretically, Chinese citizens have the right to criticize the government, but this is not guaranteed. The Fifty-first Article indicates that national, societal, and collective interests cannot be damaged due to individuals' exercise of freedom and their rights. Only the state can say what national, societal, and collective interests are and these override individual rights. Also, the mass media is not allowed to report any policy-making process within the Party.
Role of press
Chinese press has been described as the "mouth and tongue”,”eyes and ears” of the Party. Externally the media fail to fully provide the public with detailed information. Internally, within the Party, the media play role of intelligence gathering and communicating sensitive information to the central leadership. Instead of serving as an information source, the Chinese press functions as Party-policy announcer to the public and intelligence collector to the government.
Ownership Xinhua and People's Daily are the two most important print media, have status as separate government ministries. The Guangming Daily and the English-language China Daily are under the control of the Propaganda Department. Their directors sit on the party's Central Committee. They are the official press agencies of the government of China.