If you don't want reporters covering a story, the worst thing in the world you could do is try to kill it.
Nothing drives journalists more crazy than being told they can't cover a story, or that whatever you write will never be seen by readers because state censors won't allow it. Censorship and secrecy are the twin pillars of evil in every newsroom.
But that's what China did when dissident Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.
If China had given Liu Xiaobo faint praise -- or ignored his Nobel Peace Prize entirely -- the press would've covered the story and moved on.
Instead, party leaders and state-owned media poured buckets of gasoline on the story and handed out matchbooks.
- Authorities kept Liu locked up and restricted the movements of his wife.
- They invented their own peace award, as if it could compete with the Nobel Prize;
- Chinese warned foreign diplomats there would be "consequences" if they attended the Nobel Prize ceremonies
- Web sites -- including BBC and CNN -- were blacked out as Chinese censors tried to prevent citizens from reading coverage about the Nobel Prize ceremonies.
All of these moves did nothing to squash the story.
In fact, every new attempt from the Chinese authorities to kill the story only gave it new life.
It turned what could have been a good story, about how China is modern and can tolerate dissent, into a public relations disaster that showed the world how thin-skinned and autocratic the regime can be.
It also paved the way for a killer photo that will be one of the defining news images of 2010: an empty chair at the Nobel Prize ceremonies next to a huge photo of Liu Xiaobo.