Spread of illness reported down-bulletin on state TV but private outlets allowed more freedom to cover outbreak
It has been splashed all over the front pages of newspapers around the world for days. But the outbreak of coronavirus, which has left at least 25 dead and infected more than 800, has been largely missing from China’s major state-run media.
Friday’s front page of the People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist party’s flagship newspaper, displayed only warm wishes for lunar new year’s eve from the president,
Xi Jinping, as he attended a spring festival gala at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.