BEIJING: China’s government tightened control over popular instant messaging services on Thursday after telling S. Korea that access to some foreign services was blocked because they were used to exchange terrorism-related information.

The government anno­unced that only established media companies will be allowed to release political and social news. That would curtail the growing use of instant messaging services by journalists and scholars to distribute independent news reports and commentary.

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The ruling Communist Party has repeatedly tightened controls over microblogs and other social media that give Chinese a rare platform to express themselves to a large audience in a country where all traditional media are state-controlled.

China informed South Korea it has blocked access to two mobile messaging services, Kakao Talk and Line, which it said were used to exchange terrorism-related information, according to a South Korean official who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the matter.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2014