No laughing matter: China regulator bans TV parodies amid content crackdown
No laughing matter: China regulator bans TV parodies amid
content crackdown
By Pei Li and Adam Jourdan • March 22, 2018
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's media regulator is
cracking down on video spoofs, the official Xinhua news agency reported, amid
an intensified crackdown on any content that is deemed to be in violation of
socialist core values under President Xi Jinping.
The decision comes after Xi cemented his power at a
recent meeting of parliament by having presidential term limits scrapped, and
the ruling Communist Party tightened its grip on the media by handing control
over film, news and publishing to its powerful publicity department.
Xinhua said video sites must ban videos that
"distort, mock or defame classical literary and art works", citing a
directive from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and
Television on Thursday.
Reuters separately reviewed a copy of the directive,
which was unusually labelled "extra urgent".
Industry insiders say the sweeping crackdown on media
content, which has been gaining force since last year, is having a chilling
effect on content makers and distributors.
"It means a lot of content makers will have to
transition and make their content more serious. For 'extra urgent' notice like
this, you have to act immediately," said Wu Jian, a Beijing-based analyst.
"Those who don't comply in time will immediately be
closed down," Wu said.
A TV reporter's theatrical eyeroll during a long-winded
question at a Beijing news conference stole the show during China's annual
parliament session last week, exploding on Chinese social media before censors
intervened.
A video of the eyeroll became the source material for
many parodies and satirical performances.
Despite strict censorship, China has a fairly lively
online community of bloggers, who frequently respond to breaking events with
humorous - and sometimes risqué - sketches and short videos, although they
often face their posts being taken down.
JustXiait, a team of Chinese parody bloggers famous for
satirical dubbed-over videos from movies, said in an official microblog post
that the group would voluntarily delete all videos "to conduct
self-inspection, cleanup and improvement".
The decision is "to make the program more in line
with relevant laws and regulations, and to provide audience more interesting
and wholesome programs", it said.
(Reporting by Pei Li and Adam Jourdan; Editing by Paul
Tait)
Comments
Post a Comment