Chinese authorities are requiring makers of online films to gain licenses and report their content before it is posted, tightening regulation of what in recent years has been a more freewheeling genre than China’s traditional film industry.
China’s online video sites have provided an accessible platform for filmmakers of all kinds to post their work, often of shorter form than those in traditional cinemas. Microfilms, often produced by amateurs and students and increasingly by professional companies, have exploded over the past few years, stretching the boundaries of what can be shown.
This week’s update of a two-year-old regulation on the supervision of online dramas and microfilms has raised fears of stifling creativity. The broadcast administration now requires content makers to register with their real names, production companies to obtain operating licenses and report their content before it is put online and video-hosting companies to keep records of uploaded content.
China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television said the purpose is to improve supervision of the Internet, cultivate a “healthy and civilized” online environment and prevent programs with excessively sexual and violent content from having a harmful influence on society.
Wei Jiangang (魏建剛), who makes microfilms with homosexual themes, said the industry depicts a multitude of topics and the government considers some — such as sex and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender themes — very sensitive.”
“The only purpose of such a policy I think is to affect the creativity of microfilm-making, and bring it into the regular censorship system so as to carry out ideological control of this gray area of online video,” Wei said. “In cyberspace, there are loads of various opinions and voices, so the government surely doesn’t want the online video market to escape censorship.”
According to previous regulations, alleged violators face fines of 20,000 yuan (US$3,300) to 50,000 yuan and costs for possible damages, while they may also be punished for a criminal offense if a crime is found to have occurred.
Broadcasting authorities already were required to censor uploaded content and faced regulations against sexually explicit and violent content, territory microfilms have strayed into as they chase viewers.
The new, tighter rules follow a more general crackdown on online expression. Since the summer last year, authorities have arrested dozens of people for spreading rumors, created penalties for people who post libelous information and told celebrity bloggers to guard the national interest.
Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting, a Beijing-based Internet and mobile research company, said the updated regulation “is definitely more limiting” to microfilm makers.
“Among other things they have to now get a license which they are not assured of getting,” he said. “And even if they get a license it means that they still need to clean up their content and as such it will probably be less attractive. Sex and violence both sell,” he said.
Online sites, including Youku Tudou, iQiyi and Sohu, declined to comment.
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
South Korea would soon no longer be one of the few countries where Google Maps does not work properly, after its security-conscious government reversed a two-decade stance to approve the export of high-precision map data to overseas servers. The approval was made “on the condition that strict security requirements are met,” the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. Those conditions include blurring military and other sensitive security-related facilities, as well as restricting longitude and latitude coordinates for South Korean territory on products such as Google Maps and Google Earth, it said. The decision is expected to hurt Naver and Kakao
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
RSS