China to Media: Don't Cover Protests

Give China’s government credit: at least they’re not pretending they don’t muzzle speech. Western reporters say they’ve been called into meetings in Beijing where police warned them not to cover pro-democracy protests inspired by unrest in the Middle East. Authorities told reporters they could lose their credentials and be forced to leave China if they fail to comply, and some TV employees said they’d even been told they needed prior approval for any filming. The government says it’s simply trying to avoid misleading coverage by troublemakers trying to stir up unrest.