Chinese net portals ban tributes to pope for second day

Popular portals Sina.com and Sohu.com's on-line discussion forums were flooded with messages of condolence over the weekend, but all messages have disappeared since Monday.

Sohu.com confirmed the company had censored the comments, but denied it was an order from the government.

"Religious issues are special. We are afraid of problems arising," said a Sohu official.

"We're afraid people who don't understand religion will make unreasonable remarks," he said.

"It's forbidden, the leaders from the top have forbidden it," one editor at Sina.com, the biggest Chinese portal, told AFP, without specifying whether the order came from the management or the government.

Analysts said the order had likely come from the government and indicated its concern Pope John Paul II's death might become a trigger point for a religious revival.