The Chinese Government is working on a new mechanism that will “guarantee the authenticity” of information published by local content providers: Newspapers, magazines, TV, Radio, and news websites will come under scrutiny as China’s top media regulatory bodies launch a new campaign to prevent “false news”.

Xinhua reports that officials with the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the State Administration of Press and Publication today “pledged to take stringent measures to prevent all possible false news”.

Xinhua, the Chinese Government’s official press agency, recalls an incident earlier this year when Beijing Morning Post published an erroneous report that led to a sharp drop in stock prices at the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The new campaign, and the somewhat Orwellian euphemism “false news”, seems in line with the Chinese Government’s growing efforts to tighten its grip over local media.

Earlier this week, the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry pledged to shut down any China-based web sites that will fail to go through an official registration process by June 30.

To sweeten the deal, Xinhua also publishes a collection of old Claudia Schiffer bikini shots.