A 21-point directive from the Chinese government’s propaganda department instructs Chinese news outlets to keep quiet about any “emergencies” at the Olympics, to stay “positive” about security measures, and to ignore pro-independence groups from Xinjiang and Tibet, an Australian newspaper reported yesterday. The Sydney Morning Herald published what it said was the text of the instructions. “The telecast of sports events will be live … in case of emergencies, no print is allowed to report on it,” one instruction said. “Don’t make fuss about foreign leaders at the opening ceremony, especially in relation to seat arrangements or their private lives,” the memo said.

Chinese reporters were also told to make “no fuss about the Darfur issue.”

The directive told Chinese news outlets not to report on the recent unblocking of some foreign Web sites and cautioned reporters not to use racial references such as “white athlete” or “black athlete” in stories.

“In case of an emergency involving foreign tourists, please follow the official line. If there’s no official line, stay away from it,” the propaganda document said. That instruction could explain the local press’s minimal coverage of the gruesome stabbing of two Americans and a Chinese guide at a tourist site in Beijing on Saturday. One of the Americans died, while the attacker reportedly jumped to his death from a balcony.

As for the Olympics themselves, Chinese journalists were told not to criticize the selection process for athletes, not to “overhype” the gold medal race, and not to emphasize cash rewards for athletes. Coverage of China’s efforts to “secure” the lives of retired athletes was encouraged.

The existence of the directive was first reported Tuesday by a Hong Kong newspaper, the South China Morning Post. However, the secretary-general of the organizing committee for the Beijing Games, Wang Wei, flatly denied the story during a news briefing Wednesday. “There is no such 21-point document. Chinese media, according to the Chinese constitution, are free to report on the games,” he said.

TIBET ACTIVISTS DROP BANNER AT CCTV TOWER

Five foreigners were detained by police early Friday after two of them unfurled a banner reading “Free Tibet,” in English and Chinese, over an Olympic billboard outside the future headquarters of China Central Television in Beijing, a group that organized the protest, Students for a Free Tibet, said. An Australian-Canadian woman, Nicole Rycroft, 41, and a British man, Phil Kirk, 24, rappelled from the billboard, while three Americans, Kelly Osborne, 39, Bianca Bockman, 27, and Sam Maron, 22, supported the effort, the statement said. The protest took place outside a visually jarring, 51-story, Dutch-designed glass tower constructed in an upside-down U shape, but with twists that make it resemble an Escher sketch. The group’s statement said 36 of its members have been detained in six recent protests in Beijing.

TWO KILLED IN OLYMPIC-RELATED TRAFFIC CRASH

Two people were killed in Beijing on Wednesday when a van collided with a bus carrying athletes and officials to a suburban canoeing and kayaking venue from the Olympic Village, the Beijing organizing committee’s secretary-general, Wang Wei, said. Two Croatian athletes were slightly injured, but their competition schedule was not affected by the crash, caused by a van carrying four passengers attempting to pass the bus at an intersection, he said. “According to the investigation, the van was at fault and violated traffic rules,” he said.

OLYMPIC SCALPERS FLOURISH, THOUGH SOME VENUES HALF-FULL

Scalpers of Olympic tickets are flourishing in Beijing, with nearly all Olympic events sold out but a puzzling number of seats unfilled. The brisk business in the illegal resale of Olympic tickets was noted by foreign news outlets in recent days and in Friday’s edition of a state-run English-language newspaper here, China Daily. At a subway station near the Olympic Green, “the Chinese scalping fraternity was of a similar size to the international group and had an equally diverse membership, with accents from across China clearly heard,” the newspaper said. More than 400 people have been arrested for ticket-scalping, though Chinese scalpers complain that their foreign counterparts go unmolested.