Beijing to clamp down on foreign media

International Herald Tribune | August 4 2005

BEIJING China disclosed on Wednesday that it had frozen approvals for foreign satellite broadcasters entering its market and would strengthen restrictions on foreign television programs, books, newspapers and performances in an effort to exercise tighter control over the country's cultural life.

"Import of cultural products contrary to regulations will be punished according to the circumstances, and in serious cases the import license will be revoked," the rules, which were issued on Tuesday, stated. "In the near future, there will be no more approvals for setting up cultural import agencies."

Viacom, the U.S. television and entertainment conglomerate that owns MTV China, is one of three foreign broadcasters that have secured rights to broadcast to selected Chinese audiences. The other two are Star TV, owned by News Corp., and Phoenix Satellite Television, based in Hong Kong.

Other broadcasters, like CNN and BBC World, can broadcast into hotels and residential compounds used by foreigners or have joint ventures with Chinese state-run television stations.

Many multinational companies, including Time Warner and Sony, have sought deals in China.

The new rules were announced by the Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Culture and four other regulators and appeared in the Chinese press on Wednesday. They will make it more difficult for foreign companies to bring in foreign books, Internet and video games and performing acts at a time when many multinational companies are turning to China's burgeoning market for growth.

Co-productions by Chinese and foreign film and television companies will face stricter censorship, foreign magazines and newspapers can be sold only through state-controlled agencies, and imported Internet games face strengthened censorship.

"In principle, there will be no more domestic approvals for foreign satellite television channels," the rules also state, "and we will thoroughly strengthen administration of foreign broadcasters that have already set down."

Analysts and broadcasters said the rules were part of a wider effort to clamp down on foreign influence over mass culture in China.

"They're part of a broader trend in broadcasting and the cultural industry," said David Wolf, a Beijing-based expert on China's media for Burson-Marsteller, the public relations company. "They add greater clarity and specificity to rules we already know but weren't as clear."

In early July, China issued a ban on Chinese broadcasters and foreign investors' jointly operating television channels, and earlier in the year the government froze Chinese-foreign co-productions of television shows.

Wolf said the new rules were part of a "cyclical" chill on China's cultural industries, partly spurred by the promotion of a new boss at the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, Wang Taihua, a former provincial official more attuned to increasingly conservative political winds than to industry interests. In 12 to 18 months, Chinese officials may again begin to relax their controls, he said.

The regulations may also be part of an effort to repair what one Chinese report recently called the "cultural trade deficit." In recent years, China has authorized publication of more than 12,000 foreign books in Chinese translations, but only 81 Chinese books have secured foreign publishing rights, said the report, which appeared in China Comment, a magazine run by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Li Yifei, the China representative of Viacom, said the new rules were "basically in line" with a trend toward more hands-on regulation of broadcasters and television content. "Basically, it's trying to define what ministries are responsible for what categories of media," she said. "They're trying to communicate what their expectations are."

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