Chinese media struck by phobia of 4, 6

Chinese newspapers are going to absurd lengths to avoid using the digits 6 and 4, which together make up the date 6/4 or ‘June 4’, ahead of next week’s 20th anniversary of the crackdown on a student-led pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The measures are part of a rigorous self-censorship effort to ensure that no embarrassing allusions to the massacre are made in the run-up to the anniversary, as open discussion of the crackdown isn’t permitted in the Chinese media.

Up to 2,500 people, many of them students, are believed to have been killed in the crackdown that followed a nationwide uprising against the Communist Party of China. 
Some newspaper managements have forbidden reporters and editors from using the digits in their reports during this “sensitive period”, the Hong Kong daily Ming Pao reported. Others have directed staff to avoid using the numbers together in an article — and never in headlines.

Chinese Internet police recently heightened their online alert against discussion of the events of June 4, 1989, and Ming Pao reported that even a casual mention of the digits gets caught out by the keyword search filter employed by censors.

The paranoia this year is particularly excessive as it is a sensitive anniversary, and also because there have in recent years been several embarrassing episodes where allusions to the Tiananmen massacre sneaked into newspapers.

To avoid similar trouble, many reporters and editors have decided to go on vacation during this sensitive period, Ming Pao added.