China punishes six media groups for professional violations
December 28th, 2011 - 2:07 pm ICT by IANSBeijing, Dec 28 (IANS) Government regulators punished six newspapers and magazines for illegally leasing local branches to advertising agencies that allegedly indulged in extortion and for employing non-journalists for reporting and publishing work.
The violators include China Urban Economy Magazine, China Quality Journey Magazine, China Technology Market News, China Food Publishing Co., Ltd., Shandong Legal News and Enterprise Party Construction Information Weekly, according to a statement released Tuesday by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP).
These papers and magazines received warnings and were fined up to 180,000 yuan ($28,400), and their illegally established branches were removed, Xinhua quoted the statement as saying.
The Beijing-based magazine China Urban Economy was stripped of its publishing license.
In 2010 and 2011, the magazine authorized the use of its title to several contracted advertising agencies to charge “management fees” and allowed their employees to do interviews with the magazine’s work permit and letter of introduction.
With the press cards issued by the magazine, two advertising agents Xu Cheng and Li Wanjun allegedly extorted 20,000 yuan from a local real estate group during an “investigative interview” May 25, 2011, in Luoyang city, Henan province.
According to rules, local newspaper branches and their staff reporters are not allowed to engage in extortion by threatening to expose inside stories. Paid news, forced subscriptions and forced advertising in return for complimentary reports are also banned.
- Chinese gets jail term for Internet pornography - Feb 17, 2012
- China's search engine market reaches $877 mn - Apr 28, 2012
- 'Chinese journalists still face attacks, harassment' - Nov 06, 2010
- Professor fined $159 for plagiarism - Mar 27, 2012
- Chinese official jailed for 15 years for graft - Feb 20, 2012
- China to regulate reference book market - Dec 29, 2011
- China punishes six officials after tourist beaten up - Sep 24, 2011
- A Chinese call centre that will create 60,000 jobs - Jan 12, 2012
- China mulls levy for regional development - Jun 03, 2011
- China bans 'misleading' healthcare books - Jul 30, 2011
- China's advertising revenues exceed $47 bn - Feb 28, 2012
- China's Internet advertising rakes in $2 bn in Q3 - Nov 04, 2011
- China bans foreign words in publications unless accompanied with Chinese translations - Dec 22, 2010
- $5 bn subsidy for Chinese rural households - Jul 14, 2012
- China cuts railway budget - Dec 24, 2011
Tags: advertising agencies, china food, china technology, complimentary reports, extortion, general administration, government regulators, investigative interview, journey magazine, local real estate, management fees, media groups, quality journey, real estate group, shandong, staff reporters, technology market, urban economy, work permit, xinhua