The authorities are turning up the heat on fake and unaccredited
newspapers and journalists, officials said yesterday.
The crackdown will last until the end of March, the General
Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) said yesterday.
The announcement follows efforts started last year by the
administration's anti-pornography and anti-piracy offices to
tighten inspections and improve supervisory mechanisms to stop
bogus media.
Unaccredited publications fronting as approved newspapers -
containing pornography, fabricated reports and even State secrets -
have been making the rounds and damaging the social fabric,
officials said.
Since August, the GAPP has identified and exposed hundreds of
fake newspapers.
Bogus journalists and the organizations they work for have acted
against the law and public interest, misled their interviewees for
personal gain and "must be rooted out and punished", GAPP Minister
Liu Binjie said in a press release.
"Only those who pass tests and receive national press identity
cards can take on media occupations," Liu said.
Statistics have shown that authorities have to date confiscated
149 million copies of illegal publications, including 3.7 million
pornographic ones, 3.1 million illegal newspapers and periodicals,
and 3.3 million smuggled CDs.
In a recent case, a man and woman were jailed for 15 years and
10 years respectively, in Shanghai for the wholesale distribution
of pornographic material. The Shanghai No 2 Intermediate People's
Court said in its verdict that between January 2006 and April last
year, the two bought pornographic books in Henan and Guangdong
provinces.
Police raided the duo's storehouse in April and found 13,334
pornographic books and 17,216 pirated publications.
Police also busted 15 workshops, 28 suspects and confiscated
100,000 illegal audio and print materials.
In Changsha, capital of Hunan, police broke a pirating ring
involving books worth 20 million yuan.
(China Daily January 15, 2008)