Xinhua already made information-control history when it established a service that both disseminates outgoing commercial data on the Internet and filters any incoming information. The State Council's directive will in all likelihood force the New York Times, Reuters and other news organizations to reassess their operations in territories Xinhua is authorized to control.
Controls go beyond editorial conventions.
Agencies only learned of the new rules Tuesday night when Xinhua, skirting the usual practice of circulating advisories on operational changes internally, simply put the story on the wire. Now you have to wonder if we'll be able to send stories from Hong Kong, without having to pass them by Xinhua for approval.