By MEI WENTI
Rumor Correspondent
BEIJING (China Daily Show) — An official campaign against illegal online ‘rumor mongering’ has intensified this week, after state mouthpiece the People’s Daily published a series of bogus reports.
An August 26 article entitled ‘Bo Xilai guilty verdict proves China has rule of law’ is said to have “misled the public by creating a deliberately false impression that China is a constitutional democracy and everyone is totally cool with that,” police say.
Other hoax reports by the paper include an editorial about the MTV Video Music Awards that suggested China in fact invented ‘twerking’ 2,000 years ago.
This is not the first time Chinese media has been criticized recently for publishing stories that later turned out to be false.
Earlier this year, People’s Daily was widely mocked for republishing a satirical US article that claimed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had been voted the Sexiest Man Alive. In fact, the accolade went to Iran’s former President Ahmadinejad.
And just last week, a China Daily reporter was detained in Syria for impersonating a journalist.
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