|
|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » Media regulation
Sorry, but there are no more tags available to filter with.
-
-
 Lots of people buy and sell on Taobao, China's eBay Yesterday, the Beijing Administration of Industry and Commerce published on its website the draft of a new set if rules governing Internet commerce.
The rules, set to take effect on August 1, stipulate that all "for-profit online stores" are required to register for a license while "individuals who sell or exchange items for personal use" are not. This has aroused questions about how to draw the line between "for-profit" stores and "not-for-profit" ones.
According to a report in yesterday's The Beijing News, anyone who wants to open a home-based "for-profit" online store must have the permission of their local neighborhood committee (居委会或业委会) after consulting nearby residents, for example, the neighbors.
Trying to explain the difference between "for-profit" and "not-for-profit" e-coommerce, the newspaper quoted an explanation from Wang Jing, an official in Beijing Administration of Industry and Commerce:
"If the price is negotiated and accepted by both sides, it can be categorized as "not-for-profit"; if a buyer thinks that the seller intends to make a profit, and this is confirmed by the enforcement department, then the seller will be punished for doing business without a license."
The newspaper also quoted a lawyer, Liu Huaiyang who apparently has a slightly different answer from Wang's. Liu said that the "for-profit" status should be based on whether the seller is conducting the same kind of business during a certain period of time. For example: if someone has sold a watch on the Internet, he is not necessarily "for-profit", but if he has sold 100 watches in separate deals, he falls under the definition of "for-profit".
Despite the two explanations given by the newspaper, ambiguity remains: It is likely that some online stores conduct business in a "for-profit" style like selling 100 watches for a couple of months and then selling some personal stuff like a antique watch inherited from grandfather.
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
SARFT has published a list of 247 organizations that are "approved to host Internet audio-visual programs" in China.
The list includes privately-funded Youtube clones such as 6.cn and Ku6.com, and websites that do not yet exist, such as Sarft.com, which of course belongs to the industry regulator SARFT itself. Established Chinese portal websites such as Sina, Sohu, Netease and Tom also all have approval, as do websites that provide downloads of TV programs, such as PPlive.com and Uusee.com.
But conspicuously missing from the list are the Big Three of the Chinese Youtube clones: Youku.com, Tudou.com and 56.com. Although 56.com has been off line for nearly two weeks after an apparent porblem with the authorities, these three websites have the largest amount of funding of any video websites in China, most of it foreign. By most accounts they are also the most popular video sites in China.
But with CINIC reporting that there are 160 million users of online video, just under half of China's total online population, the regulators at SARFT have clearly decided that Internet video is a mass medium, capable of stirring the masses.
As a mass medium, uppity foreign-funded video websites are going to have a tough time until they can reach a mutually satisfactory accommodation with SARFT, and possibly other government organs.
The Big Three have famously large amounts of venture capital investment, something that SARFT is aware of.
SARFT may just let these websites run dry and expire. Or perhaps they will reach an accommodation soon enough to make sure some of the money, technology and know-how invested in Youku.com, Tudou.com and 56.com remains for the good of Chinese netizens, and for the Chinese government's own nation building purposes.
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 No one has tried this in China The Exile is, or rather was a sarcastic, funny and sometimes obscene English newspaper and website, published in Moscow. Frequent references to hookers and extremely crass mockery of Russian politicians were a constant feature.
Until yesterday, when government agents walked into the publication's Moscow offices.
Mark Ames, founder of paper is writing for magazine's website about the "audit" and closure of the Exile by government agents. Excerpt:
Thursday morning, Moscow time, four Russian government officials came to the office of my English-language newspaper, the Exile, and conducted an "unplanned audit" of our editorial content. They are carrying out an inspection of my paper's articles to see, in their words, if we have committed "violations." And they specifically asked to question me, since I'm officially listed as the founding editor-in-chief.
I started up the Exile 11 years ago with a Russian publisher, and it grew into a kind of cult phenomenon, with an online readership of 200,000 visitors per month, launching the careers of Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi and the "War Nerd," Gary Brecher, but ensuring that anyone who sticks with the paper is condemned to a life of poverty and paranoia.
 As far as your correspondent knows, no foreigner has ever tried to publish anything like The Exile in China. The closest thing I have seen is the rather inward-looking and music obsessed Eight Inches of Arsehole, a photocopied zine that was distributed in bars in Beijing and amongst the expatriate hipster musician types and people with strong thoughts about Beijing expatriate magazines.
But it was photocopied, anonymous, and had no advertising or pretense of being commercial media. And they never touched politics.
Notes:
• Thanks to Shanghai Eye for the tip off.
• I have only seen the one issue of Eight Inches pictured here, and do not know precisely who produced it; corrections to the above are welcome.
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
Despite government attempts to stop or slow down criticism and debate about 'sensitive' questions arising from the Sichuan earthquake, there is a fair amount of discussion about these issues in Chinese, especially on the Internet. Here are some recent translations:
ESWN: The interview with the kneeling Party secretary
Translation by Roland Soong of an interview with the Mianzhu Party Secretary that includes questions about shoddy construction of schools.
China Media Project: When will the right time come to ask the tough questions?
Translation by David Bandurski of an editorial by columnist and Phoenix TV host Leung Man-Tao (梁文道).
Asia Sentinel: The audacity of independent viewpoint
Translation by Alice Poon of an essay titled 'Southern Weekly, please uphold your independent viewpoint” written by columnist Xin Lijian (信力健). This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
The May issue of Yanhuang Chunqiu contains an essay by Zi Zhongjun on freedom of expression and institutional reform. Zi is a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and is the former editor of American Studies Quarterly.
Her references to the relatively open media in the south (read, Southern Metropolis Daily and its stable of newspapers and magazines) are particularly relevant following the recent controversy over Southern Metropolis Weekly editor Chang Ping.
Realizing the Right of Expression Requires Institutional Guarantees
by Zi Zhongjun / YC
I don't have much interest now in studying certain formulations in leaders' reports. I have only one attitude: look at how they are put into practice. Sometimes, some statements are not workable. I remember a few years ago, a newspaper organized a symposium, around the time that "scientific concept of development" and "people-centered" had just appeared. I spoke at the symposium and wrote up an article based on that speech, arguing that "people-centered" had to include human rights. And I said that good slogans and good formulations had to rely on the healthy power of society to be put into practice. When the healthy power of society is suppressed, even the best slogans cannot be carried out. Later, I was unable to publish this paper anywhere. Someone said that leaders' fine words were "promises" made to the people. I feel that the statements made in their speeches aren't promises that are made good simply by saying them. For example, they say they'll give the people the right of expression, but in practice, the right of expression is controlled as it always has been. To this day I have not found earnest action taken to allow and support the the right of expression. Even the most open newspapers in the south are frequently given yellow cards. Whether or not there is free speech is a touchstone; there's no point to further discussion of democracy. We talked about democracy in the past, but it's never been carried out. To carry out freedom of speech and the right of expression, private-sector newspapers and periodicals must be permitted. They say you can criticize "according to the law," but this "law" rests in the hands of the leaders. A few newspapers in the south are market-driven and no longer live off the state, but the higher-ups can still replace editors and publishers. And the publishing houses: they don't need to openly say that you can't publish this or that book. They just give you fewer book numbers and you can't handle it. There are lots of techniques for limiting the right of expression, so there's fundamentally no need to openly announce that freedom of speech is being suppressed, or that you aren't being permitted to say something. Call up the editor or publisher, make an anonymous phone call—no one will dare to disobey. If you really disobey, there goes your job. The editor himself may not care, but his underlings will lose their jobs too. To date there has been no posture of relaxing controls on speech; it's just that the methods have changed.
I feel that the question of freedom of speech does not only rest with the Publicity Department. The head of the Publicity Department must obey the Central Committee. If the head of the Publicity Department is not in line with the Central Committee, then they change people. We feel pressure from the Publicity Department directly, but in fact it's a question of overall policy. We must analyze lots of statements, a great deal of things in the government work report and the 17th Party Congress report, and decide what's going to be put into practice, what's meant for the ears of foreigners, or what's meant to assuage public opinion. I find that these are very hard to differentiate.
In addition, there's one more thing about which I'm not very optimistic; that is, when outstanding individuals are influenced by interests and no longer uphold their old ideas. Recently I ran into a few academics who had good ideas at one time, but once they entered the CPPCC and the NPC or attained a certain position, they felt they had the opportunity to gain information, and said that things were quite free and democratic now. It's impossible for them to abandon those interests. If their speech is not in line with the mainstream, then take away a few of their classes, suspend them from teaching for a year. Without classes, or if those conferences no longer invite them, they won't be able to bear it. Their income will drop a sizeable amount, as will their social standing. Of course, there are some people who will disregard anything to uphold the truth. But those who aren't shaken by poverty are in the minority.
As for whether we've improved, if we do a vertical comparison then of course things are much better than before the reform and opening up. But those expectations are a little low; we ought to do a horizontal comparison now. It's the 21st Century, and things around us have made great progress. Chinese people have studied the American general elections quite carefully. But we are confused about the changing sessions of 17th Party Congress and the NPC, which ought to be our "general elections," and as for the leaders who are elected to the seats they are marked down for, how much of a right to know and right to be heard do we have toward them? We can only guess at things through the rumor mill. The countries around us in southeast Asia, including Vietnam, are already out in front. Korea was originally an autocracy, but they've crossed that barrier. Russia, regardless of its many problems, or whether people are saying Putin is pulling back rights, they can't return to the past; they've already crossed that barrier. Our democracy hasn't yet crossed that barrier. It's hard to push forward now. Even if a truly great leader wanted to push forward, it would still be difficult, because so many people with vested interests are blocking it, and there are obstacles both horizontal and vertical at the lower levels. I think the only thing to do is open up public opinion and let that healthy power express itself. And there might be further sacrifices, like in the Sun Zhigang affair: when the Southern Metropolis Daily exposed the Sun Zhigang affair, one person lost his job and another went to prison. And that was relatively stable. If we cannot open up supervision by public opinion in a timely fashion, who knows what will happen next.
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
Yesterday, RSF reported that Chang Ping had been removed from his position as deputy editor of Southern Metropolis Weekly because of an opinion piece on Tibet he wrote for the Financial Times,
In today's Lianhe Zaobao, reporter Yang Yongxin quotes some "informed individuals" who provide additional information (using his real name, Zhang Ping):
This paper has learned that Zhang Ping had been deputy editor and lead writer for Southern Metropolis Weekly, but after publishing the aforementioned article, the management of SMW's parent newspaper, Southern Metropolis Daily, decided last week to conduct a "personnel adjustment," removing Zhang from his position as deputy editor but keeping him on as lead writer.
The "official explanation" given by the management was that they had made this decision some time ago because Zhang was better suited to writing work than to administrative work.
Nevertheless, it is widely believed that Zhang's removal is inseparable from his article. In addition, there are those who believe that the SMD management was subject to outside pressure, leading it to make that decision.
...
Reportedly, Zhang's colleagues at SMW and SMD were unhappy with his treatment and wrote a petition to the management requesting that he be reinstated, but they were rejected.
Zhang refused to comment when contacted by telephone last night: "Thank you for your concern, but it's really not convenient to make any comment at this time."
An informed individual told this paper that Zhang Ping was very upset with the management's decision, and many of his colleagues were concerned that he would no longer be willing to remain at SMW. In addition, the company strictly regulates its employees' contacts with overseas media, so even if Zhang had additional grievances, he could not easily express them.
Although Zhang's article was not published in SMD, many angry netizens connected the two: in addition to calling Zhang a traitor to his country (卖国贼), they criticized SMD as a media entity that betrayed the Chinese race (汉奸媒体).
Reportedly, SMD had originally decided to silently endure such criticism without taking any action, but ultimately it was pressured to remove Zhang Ping from his post as deputy editor of SMW.
Chang Ping is still listed as deputy editor and lead writer (总主笔兼副主编) in today's issue of Southern Metropolis Weekly, but given magazine lead times, that may not mean much.
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
According to activist group Reporters San Frontiers, Chang Ping (长平), the deputy editor of Southern Metropolis Daily (南方都市报) and editor of Southern Metropolis Weekly (南都周刊) has been removed from his posts after publishing editorials about Tibet.
There is more about the debate in China about the editorials in this Danwei article: The Internet wages war on the liberal media. Chang Ping became the target of an online campaign as well as a fiery editorial by Mei Ninghua (梅宁华), president of the Beijing Daily Group and vice-chair of the All-China Journalists Association.
This is not the first time that Chang has been purged from a Southern Media Group publication: In 2001, he was removed from his position as deputy editor of Southern Weekly (南方周末).
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
An unconfirmed rumor from a media industry source says that the April 18, 2008 issue of the print edition of the Asian Wall Street Journal was banned or had page 7 removed by CNPIEC (中图), the state entity that controls the import of most periodicals and books into China.
What was on page 7?
The ad for the Far Eastern Economic Review reproduced at left (click to enlarge).
On a different subject, this is currently the top story on FEER's website:
Mongolia's China Syndrome
As the world’s attention turns to Buddhist protests against Chinese rule and cultural domination in Tibet, another neighbor of China is protesting in a less peaceful manner. In Mongolia, anti-Chinese sentiment has taken a nasty turn. The neo-Nazi group Blue Mongolia, for example, shaves the heads of women caught sleeping with Chinese men. “It is for their own good,” says Gansuren Damdinsuren, a Blue Mongolia board member. “A small nation can only survive by keeping its blood pure.”
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 We gotta move these satellite TVs Last week The Shanghai Daily reported:
Seventeen government departments will launch a joint city-wide campaign to wipe out illegal television satellites that can receive foreign TV programs across Shanghai, the Oriental Morning Post reported today
Authorities including Shanghai Media Group, the industrial and commercial administration, public security forces, the real estate bureau, prosecutors and courts have already released notices to more than 11,000 property management companies across the city about the campaign, the report said.
In many Chinese cities, it costs a few thousand yuan to have a satellite dish and hacked decoder installed in an apartment. As long as Chinese TV continues to be so vanilla, the government will not be able to get rid of these 'illegal' satellite dishes.
As an article in The Shanghai Star put it way back in 2002:
The authorities are putting the lid on unauthorized reception of overseas TV via satellite dishes, which number between 20,000 and 200,000 in Shanghai. Will the move differ from previous campaigns?
The image above shows a government worker removing an illegal satellite TV dish from a building in Qingdao, apparently in January this year. The image is from a small gallery posted to a forum website called 17KWS.com, whose slogan is "Let's watch satellite TV together". The gallery's caption says that a team composed of police and SARFT officials climbed on to apartment building's roofs and balconies, confiscating satellite dishes.
The top comment to the forum post says "Hateful!"
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Threatening China's security? Xinhua reports on a campaign to clean up the map industry in China:
The Chinese government is to crack down on illegal online map and geographical information websites, claiming they threaten state security, said an official of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (SBSM) on Tuesday...
..."Some websites publish sensitive or confidential geographical information, which might leak state secrets and threaten national security," Min said.
He said those websites would be closed down.
Foreign organizations and individuals engaging in making and publishing online maps in China would also be stopped.
... Last year, China issued a regulation restricting surveying and mapping by foreigners to protect national security.
It stipulated foreign organizations and individuals who intend to engage in surveying and mapping must obtain approval from the central government and accept supervision from local governments.
The poor, old, crusty comrades of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, they're stuck in the 1960s, and that is why it is so difficult to get decent maps in China.
It's not actually difficult to get decent maps of China. Your correspondent likes a good walk in the mountains that surround Beijing, and has long since given up on locally published maps which are full of errors and inaccuracies. There is not a single Mainland published map of the mountains around Beijing that can compare to a printout of a Google Earth images, or to the excellent, highly detailed Soviet Union and U.S. military maps from the 1930s and 1960s that are available online for free if you look around a little.
Therefore unless you believe that a hostile power planning an attack on China would not use the Internet, there is no security risk that does not already exist. So, aside from the desire to suppress information that seems hardwired into the soul of the Party, why are the crusty comrades of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping unleashing this campaign?
It would appear that there are two real reasons behind the campaign: The first is the government's insistence on maintaining the Party line about disputed territories, as explained in the Xinhua article:
The campaign would also target websites that made mistakes such as labeling Taiwan a "country", wrongly drawing national boundaries, or omitting important islands including the South China Islands, Diaoyu Islands and Chiwei Island, said Min.
The second and more compelling reason is, naturally, money.
Or rather, money and power. Film and TV regulator SARFT has made aggressive moves to ensure that Internet video is under their remit (see this Danwei post). This means that they control approvals, and thus ultimately have the last say in who invests in the industry and what kind of video they put on the Internet.
The mapping people see a similar threat from the Internet, and from the rapid growth of GPS navigation services. GPS devices have already become mainstream in China. Danwei's accountant is a recent migrant from Shanghai; she can't tell north from south but drives around Beijing like an old hand with a GPS device that knows all the one way roads, and tells her where to turn. You can get a GPS device for a few thousand yuan; subscriptions to navigation services start from a few hundred yuan a year. With new and directionally clueless drivers coming onto China's roads every day, the potential market is massive.
The one foreign company that will certainly be affected by an increasingly aggressive State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping is Nokia, whose global strategy is increasingly connected with navigation services to mobile phones.
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
About two weeks ago, film and TV regulator SARFT apparently issued an order to video sharing website Tudou.com to cease operations. The order was not obeyed, although Tudou did shut down the website for a 24 hour period on Friday March 14.
Today SARFT published two lists on its website. The first one is a list of websites ordered to cease operations. Tudou is not named; in fact all the websites in the list seem to be fly by night video downloading BBS and small, relatively unknown video sites. Many of them have names that imitate other, more popular websites, e.g. Xunleicn.com whose name is ripped off from the popular Xunlei.com.
The second list shows websites that are going to be punished or fined. Number one on the list is Tudou. None of Tudou's real competitors like Youku.com or 56.com are on the list: the rest of the websites mentioned are small and unknown players.
Despite being named on a list of insignificant and mostly lousy websites, this seems like good news for Tudou, as long as the fine is not too severe.
Links and Sources
The contents of the two SARFT lists are reproduced below. Video websites ordered to close down
1快闪客 http://www.mober.cn 陕西
2 爱上网 http://www.15150.com 重庆
3 迅雷中国 http://www.xunleicn.com 湖南
4 亲亲影视 http://www.kissdy.com 湖南
5 卡提诺论坛 http://bbs.katinuo.com 湖南
6 好扑软件园 http://www.xp90.com 湖南
7 梅雨中文论坛 http://myt66.com 湖南
8 木鱼影视下载 http://www.mmnv.cn 湖南
9 武陵文娱网 http://www.518e.cn 湖南
10 夏天的风论坛 http://www.wingle.cn 湖南
11 多乐街 http://bbs.duoluojie.com 湖南
12 烽火影视 http://www.fh911.cn 江苏
13 去迅雷 http://www.7xunlei.com 湖南
14 超级BT下载 http://www.btttt.com 重庆
15 摩比豆网 http://www.mobido.com.cn 河北
16 光明顶社区 http://www.mygmd.com 福建
17 融侨家园 http://www.rongqiao.net 福建
18 天空社区 http://www.skybbs.com 福建
19 超级搞笑论坛 http://bbs.52joy.com 福建
20 厦门天使社区 http://www.skyoto.com 福建
21 BT大全 http://greatall.com 河北
22 网通世纪BT下载 http://www.tongtong.net 河北
23 创业冲动 http://www.cycd.net 新疆
24 PC狗狗时尚先锋 http://www.pc9g.net 河北
25 猫扑视频 http://www.mopvod.com 山东
Video websites fined / punished
1 土豆网 http://www.tudou.com 上海
2 5Q地带 http://www.5qzone.net 湖北
3 爱txt电子书论坛 http://www.aitxt.com 安徽
4 巴蜀在线 http://movie.skyhoo.cn 四川
5 百看娱乐论坛 http://bbs.100kan.com 湖北
6 大脉网http://digg.my160.com 重庆
7 大伟影视播客 http://www.my1983.net 安徽
8 韩寒非官方论坛 http://www.twocold.org 湖北
9 怀旧碟子珍藏馆http://bbs.diezi.net 四川
10 龙族论坛 http://www.ourhigh.com 湖北
11 千年免费电影下载 http://www.1000n.com 重庆
12 三百宽频 http://300vod.cn 安徽
13 听花醉月娱乐网 http://www.yon888.net 湖北
14 寻乐休闲会馆 http://www.seekfun.com.cn 河北
15 迅blog影视 http://www.xunbodh.com 福建
16 优讯网 http://www.yoinfo.cn 安徽
17 月光岛 http://bbs.fm214.com 安徽
18 中国BT下载网 http://www.btfire.com 云南
19 我看我电影 http://www.5k5tv.com 广西
20 雪浪斋手机休闲论坛 http://www.flysnow.cn 江苏
21 网娱音乐社区 http://www.wycom.cn 四川
22 小酒馆论坛 http://www.littlebar.com.cn 四川
23 动吧社区 http://www.08bbs.net 四川
24 文行天下 http://www.11pop.com 四川
25 哝呢论坛 http://www.nongnei.com 广西
26 哈虎网http://www.haahoo.com 广西
27 [漫猫]动漫论坛http://www.btcomic.com 广西
28 191电影网 http://www.191dy.com 广西
29一万部免费电影 http://www.10000dy.com 广西
30 迅雷公社 http://www.96cn.com 吉林
31 中国BT下载网 http://bt.designxf.com 天津
32 迅雷电影 http://www.365xunlei.cn 江苏 This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Driving SARFT crazy? Blogger Wang Xiaofeng wrote a post last week about SARFT and its campaign against Lust, Caution actress Tang Wei. Below are a few translated excerpts:
Why is SARFT so uptight?
During this session of National People’s Congress, there is one thing in particular that worried me badly: the Super Ministry Reform. I was so worried that SARFT would be merged with some other ministry, say the Ministry of Culture, into a bigger Super Ministry of Culture, and then we would all miss SARFT so. [Bu that did not happen]...
...So SARFT, like a menopausal women having hot flushes, will continue to throw bans here and there for no reason whatsoever...
...If you insist on asking why it should behave that way, “Well… because I can,” is probably the only answer you can expect from SARFT. Think about this, it was the SARFT who gave Lust, Caution permission in the first place, and now, it imposed a ban on Tang Wei appearing in any commercial on any Chinese TV channel. Why should SARFT do that?
Yes, you may have figured it out by now—SARFT has got the power, the kind of power with which it can do whatever it wants and get away with it! Just like our chief editor shouts at us all the time and no one dares to talk back because he is the one who has the power, right?...
...What law is behind this decision banning Tang Wei? The are two, namely the Movie Regulation Rules (电影管理条例) and Movie Approval Stipulations (电影审查规定) which are actually not “laws” but “stipulations” passed by the the State Council, namely the Central People's Government. Such stipulations only govern certain groups of people, unlike the laws passed by National People’s Congress which everyone is equally subject to. Tang Wei is an actress, so she is on the turf of the two mighty stipulations which govern the movie industry.
In April 1989, the National People’s Congress enacted the Administration Litigation Law which was designed to hold the executive branch of the government accountable for its behavior. If there is any disagreement about a law or the way it is applied, technically you can take the government to court for further arbitration. Since the passing of this law, all subsequent stipulations have added similar articles. Curiously, the Movie Regulation Rules and Movie Approval Stipulations do not contain any such clause. Therefore from a legal perspective, you cannot sue SARFT...
...If you are in the film business, no matter who you are, if you have a problem with the SARFT, you are done for. Zhang Yimou was almost banned; Feng Xiaogang was almost banned; Tian Zhuangzhuang was banned for ten years, long enough that now when he is back, he has forgotten how to make a movie. Will Tang Wei get banned and get old, so old that she won't be able to star in any movies? Is there any place she can go for justice? I wish there was. But most people in the movie business, I guess, are by now used to SARFT’s bans...
The funniest part maybe is that when SARFT banned Tang Wei, it did not leave any written records. This decision which has already made Unilever lose millions [paid for Tang Wei's endorsement] is almost untraceable. So if Unilever wanted to sue SARFT, which of course is highly improbable, it wouldn’t be able to get hold of any evidence necessary for the prosecution.
Even if SARFT did get sued, neither Tang Wei nor Unilever would stand a chance, because technically Tang Wei was not “banned”. It's rather the TV channels that are banned from showing commercials containing images of Tang Wei. So Tang Wei could not sue SARFT. Neither can Unilever. Only the TV channels have the right to prosecute.
Unfortunately, they do not have the balls.
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Tick tock The story about online video site Tudou, recently censured by SARFT takes another twist.
Since early this morning, the site has been offline, offering only the following message in explanation:
Potatoes:
To provide you all with better service, we are migrating and expanding Tudou's central servers.
Our service will be suspended from 0:00 to 24:00 on 14 March.
At 0:00 on 15 March, our migration will be complete and Tudou will promptly return home.
Nobody in the industry believes the explanation of the server move: see for example this article on Enorth.com.cn which says that the server moving explanation is "suspicious" and also says that this may be the "most serious case" of a website shutting down in the history of the Chinese Internet.
For their part, Tudou seem to be confident that they will restore services at midnight tonight: Tudou videos embedded in other websites currently show a clock counting down the seconds until midnight (see screenshot above).
Perhaps Tudou will return so harmoniously that their troubles will be over, but it is probably going to take some work. On Tuesday this week, research and consulting firm Marbridge released this bit of information:
42 Online Video Sites to Sign "Self-Discipline Agreement"
After 8 companies signed the "Self-Discipline Agreement for Chinese Internet Audiovisual Programming", another 42 online video sites have applied to join them. Among them, some of the better-known names include: Netmovie, Jeboo, Vodone, Sina, PPStream, Youku, Quacor, UUsee, 6Rooms (6.cn), Hupo.tv, UiTV, QQ.com, and PPLive.
Editor's note: Tudou, which recently saw its cooperation with CCTV.com put on hold and is now awaiting possible punishment from the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) for alleged violations of rules on banned content, is not listed among either the first 8 or current round of 42 existing/applying signatories of the Self Discipline Agreement.
Perhaps not the right move?
In other SARFT news, Normandy Madden of Advertising Age has an article about the crazy media regulator's ban on actress Tang Wei (reported on Danwei here), that looks at at affair from the point of view of Unilever, whose Ponds brand has been using Tang as a celebrity endorser:
[Unilever] recently selected Ms. Tang as the face of Pond's in the mainland, a major skin-care market, as part of an effort that began last month to lift Pond's into the mid- to high-end category. Ms. Tang's celebrity endorsement deal with Unilever is reportedly worth $845,000...
In a statement given to Advertising Age by Unilever in China, the company said: "The advertising itself was produced and distributed in accordance with Chinese rules and regulations. Government approval was received before distribution and airing. We have not received any official notice for the ban and we are currently trying to ascertain what lies at the root of the issue. The Pond's contract with Tang Wei remains intact."
The agencies handling Pond's creative and media in China, Ogilvy & Mather and WPP sibling MindShare, respectively, declined to comment.
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Banned. Maybe. SARFT's recent banning of Lust, Caution actress Tang Wei has caused a fuss in the entertainment industry in China and Hong Kong, and prompted Lust, Caution director Ang Lee to write a letter of protest about the blacklisting.
This is confirmed on a Xinhua report published this morning, titled 'SARFT confirms media blackout on Tang Wei'.
Oddly enough, also published today is a story on CQnews.net, titled 'SARFT denies media blackout on Tang Wei'. Translated excerpt:
SARFT Party Committee member and President of CCTV Zhao Huayong said" "There is absolutely no truth in this story that Tang Wei has been blacklisted".
This comes in the same week that SARFT apparently issued an order to popular online video site Tudou.com to cease operations, an order that so far has been completely ignored.
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
|
|
|