Prescribed media guidelines are not unusual in China, where reporters operate within a heavily-censored environment that is tightly controlled by Communist authorities. However, the explicit reference to Xi is likely to sound alarm among freedom of speech advocates.
The code, which was published Sunday by the All-China Journalists Association, was last updated in 2009, three years before Xi came to power. In the decade since, media restrictions in China have tightened significantly amid ongoing efforts by Xi to consolidate his position as the country's most powerful leader since founder Mao Zedong.
