China mulls press law to improve news coverage

China is drafting its first press law to help media organizations make a greater impact after years of clamor by experts, a former senior official from the press authorities said.

This was announced by Liu Binjie, the former director of the defunct General Administration of Press and Publication, at a forum, China National Radio reported Sunday.

Liu said that new media outlets have been carrying eye-catching stories with relatively more independence and rapidly expanding influence, while traditional media outlets are still being managed under strict rules that limited their impact. A press law would end the imbalance, he added.

A press law would lay out the legal, moral and social boundaries for media, Liu noted.  It would also allow the media more discretion in their reporting under the legal framework, Liu said.

Chinese scholars and lawyers have been calling for a press law for over a decade. Incidents of journalists being beaten were frequently reported. Meanwhile, some reporters' unethical behavior such as charging companies for positive coverage has also been punished.

The Fourth Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in late October tackled the "rule of law" for the first time, which also applies to the media industry, said Liu.

Authorities are also considering greater protection for the intellectual property rights of news products, said Liu.

• Online news portals will have to pay for information and original stories uploaded to the platform before reposting them, the Shandong-based Dazhong Daily reported.

 Source: Global Times
1/12/14