Mainland authorities have tightened control over the content of advertisements in media and songs sung by karaoke users.
The Beijing News reported that the State General Administration of Press and Publication (National Copyright Administration) (新聞出版總署) and the SAIC had urgently issued a notice detailing a ban on ads touting treatments for 12 illnesses including cancer, hepatitis, AIDS and various venereal diseases. The ban would be implemented tomorrow, 1 November 2006.
The nationwide order, which was issued on 23 October and affect all publications, follows the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television's announcement in August prohibiting television stations from carrying shopping commercials for pharmaceuticals and medical instruments, as well as procedures and products for breast augmentation, weight loss and height increases.
The authorities consider that the ads were misleading the public. Most commercials claim the drugs or services offered can either cure patients of complex diseases or beautify their bodies.
Xinhua on 24 October carried a survey by the State Food and Drug Administration which found that over 90% of the drug advertisements in newspapers were illegal. That means they were published without permission from the authority, or related to banned topics.
The Beijing News report said the new ban would cover drugs and cures for cancer, hepatitis B, neurological disorders, skin diseases and sexually transmitted diseases. Commercials relating to abortion would also be banned.
Quoting the government notice, the paper said some media outlets continually publish illegal and poor-taste ads with false information, and the behaviour has seriously damaged the prestige of the media. The authority also said the ban could be lifted in future if management regulations on medical ads were improved.
Director of People's University media studies centre Yu Guoming (喻國明) opposed the ban on the ground that patients should have the right to access information on medical treatment. To cope with the issue of false medical advertisements, the authorities should tighten the regulation and not ban the advertisements, Yu said.
He expected the ban to impact the newspapers and magazines as medical ads account for 10-20% advertising revenue.
Censorship also has an effect on people's daily entertainment. In July, some media reported the Ministry for Culture (MOC)'s plan to launch a "national content management service system for karaokes" (全國卡拉OK內容管理服務系統) in a bid to prevent unhealthy songs from invading mainland karaokes.
MOC said the new system would be tested in the cities of Wuhan, Zhengzhou and Qingdao. In future, only scrutinized "legal songs" will be available in a unified karaoke song bank.
The public are however concerned about what "unhealthy songs" mean. Officer of MOC's cultural market development centre Liang Gang gave a vague explanation that items included in the official song bank must comply with the nation's rules and regulations, and related policies. Liang added the songs' copyrights would have to be clarified and their content would have to meet [certain] requirements.
Karaoke operators are reportedly worried that if popular songs cannot pass the vetting process, they would fall into the hands of grey market karaoke operators and hurt the competitiveness of karaokes that operate legally.
Citizens online even expressed their fear that the whole country would be singing the same song with a system centralizing what people should sing.
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