China's official propaganda department has just issued new rules for some local media – it seems global criticism of its heavy-handed tactics doesn't bother the authorities.

The Chinese Government has ordered big news organisations to silence their criticism of the country's men's soccer team, some of whom played in the Olympics, writes the International Herald Tribune.

The tip off comes from two Chinese journalists, says the paper.

" One major newspaper received an order to stop criticizing the men's team, a reporter for the newspaper said. Another Chinese journalist confirmed on Wednesday night that a general order along those lines had been issued by the government …

" …On an Internet message board, an anonymous person who works for a television or radio news program said in a post dated Aug. 16 that the Central Propaganda Department had "demanded that the press not overly quip or sneer at the Chinese men's soccer team." …"

Don't criticise or probe

The IHT goes on to say how during the Olympics, authorities tried to censor local media coverage of moments that were embarrassing to Chinese sports. Like when the country's popular athlete Liu Xiang pulled out because of an injury – the order from the propaganda officials was not to criticise or probe.

Chinese media are regularly ordered what they can and can't write about - reporter Shi Tao is serving 10 years in jail after emailing a copy of some of the government's orders, on how to report the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, to a contact who published them on a pro-democracy website he runs in the US.

Edicts made public

During the Games, the Sydney Morning Herald got hold of a list of rules for Chinese journalists.

The list included a ban on coverage of the pro-Tibet and East Turkistan movements and stories about the official protest parks; not to criticise selection process for athletes; don’t make a fuss of isolated incidents of misconduct by athletes; no negative comments about the opening ceremony; be positive about security measures.

Foreign media ran plenty of stories about those edicts, but apparently that didn't bother Chinese authorities - the orders are still coming out of the propaganda department. It's just not often that anyone makes them public.