China curbs foreign news footage

By Peter Feuilherade
BBC Monitoring

The Chinese government keeps a firm grip on the media

China's government has told local TV stations not to use video from foreign sources to produce news bulletins.

New rules ban the use of footage acquired from foreign satellite TV and other channels that are not state-run.

Stations have been told they should only use news reports provided by the state-run China Central Television and China Radio International.

The rules also say that historical soap operas involving "major or sensitive" issues must get official approval.

Taboo issues for TV drama include political, military and religious themes.

A notice issued by the Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) on 10 April also demands that local government offices overseeing TV drama productions submit monthly reports to ensure the shows stick to pre-approved scripts.

Call for discipline

With growing competition among broadcasters and Chinese viewers demanding better news coverage, some local stations, especially in large cities, are relying more on reports supplied directly by foreign news services or satellite broadcasters.

Controlling the sole news source is a good way to ensure all the international news reporting sticks to a unified official line Ying Hong, Tsinghua University

Three stations in Shanghai have been using Reuters and Associated Press material in recent years, according to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post newspaper.

But Chinese officials have stated repeatedly that news reporting is a crucial area over which the party will not relinquish its control.

"Recently, some foreign news agencies and media have used a variety of methods to sell international news material to domestic local TV stations, which have clear political intentions," SARFT said in the notice, quoted by Xinhua.

The notice said local TV stations should avoid using news material from foreign sources to produce international news programmes or special coverage about international affairs.

The rules also ban the use of non-approved video footage, even when accompanied by voice-over scripts provided by the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua.

The notice called for greater "political and propaganda discipline", adding: "We must... ban that which must be banned."

'Official line'

The moves are the latest in a series of steps by the Communist Party to curb increasingly outspoken reporting, primarily in China's local newspapers and magazines but also in some broadcast outlets.

Tsinghua University media professor Ying Hong told the South China Morning Post: "Controlling the sole news source is a good way to ensure all the international news reporting sticks to a unified official line."

The crackdown comes against the backdrop of the government appearing to pull back in mid-2005 from allowing foreign media groups to invest and operate more widely in China, on the grounds of defending "national cultural security".

As concerns mount among China's leadership about social unrest in poorer rural communities and how it is reported, some analysts believe that further opening-up of the news and media sector is still some way off.

BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad.