Chinese reporters and editors who fabricate stories or take bribes will face stern punishments, including confiscation of their press cards and a five-year banishment from reporting, according to an announcement made on Tuesday.
A provisional regulation recently issued by the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the General Administration of Press and Publication, aims at "maintaining justice, authenticity and objectivity in news reporting."
The regulation forbids reporters and editors from taking advantage of their positions to seek illicit benefits or accept gifts that might influence their writing. They are also prohibited from operating businesses or taking concurrent jobs at other organizations.
Journalists who accept bribes to report unfairly or who write stories with false information can have their press cards revoked and be barred from news writing for five years. Those who are convicted of crimes will be expelled from the press corps for life.
The regulation forbids reporters, editors, producers, anchorpersons and announcers from getting involved in advertising deals and from forcing interviewees to subscribe to their newspapers or periodicals or to buy ads by threatening to slant a story.
Reporters are also required to carry and show press cards on their own initiative at interviews. People who impersonate reporters will be subject to severe penalties.
By January, the General Administration of Press and Publication had issued 146,541 new press cards, hoping to curb the rampant use of phony cards.
The provisional regulation is part of a series of changes being made in media administration. New regulations concerning press cards and regional newspaper offices went into effect on March 1.
China has about 150,000 journalists. More than 70,000 write for newspapers and magazines and about 60,000 are in broadcasting. The remainder work for news agencies such as Xinhua.
(Xinhua News Agency March 22, 2005)
