To: John Rieman who wrote (27197 ) 12/30/1997 2:12:00 AM From: BillyG Respond to of 50808
National centers for VCD production........................ Action taken to clean up publication market THE '97 national winter action to crack down on the production and marketing of illegal publications and audio-video products was formally inaugurated yesterday. The action, which lasts till the end of March, will ban reactionary, pornographic publications, curb the smuggling and piracy of publications and audio-video products, and boost the healthy development of the country's cultural market, said Yu Youxian, administrator of the State Press and Publication Administration. Speaking at a televised national conference, Yu stressed that efforts will continue to unearth the underground VCD production lines by expanding the practice of the "paid reporting" system to encourage more people to give clues to underground VCD production lines. Up to date, the country has unearthed 52 such production lines, a number of them were discovered through public reporting, said Yu. Yesterday, the National Anti-Pornography Office announced its hotlines for reporting -- (010) 65231138 and (010) 65203288. The hotlines will be open round-the-clock. Reporters will be given a prize and be protected. According to Yu, the country reaped noticeable achievements during the past years' concentrated actions since 1990. The winter action last year seized 6.48 million cassettes of illegal audio-video products including 180,000 that were pornographic as well as 1.86 million pirated VCDs, 60,000 electronic publications and 12.61 million copies of printed publications. About 1,150 publication markets were shut down, and 1,053 printing houses, 12,000 audio-video programme leasing and broadcasting sites, and eight book and audio-visual publishing houses were punished. Yet there are still problems in the publication market. Yu said that the smuggling of porno video and electronic products is rampant in some areas. Publications with serious political problems have appeared in a number of places and there are still people producing and marketing pirated publications and VCDs and other electronic products. The customs throughout the country seized some 9.12 million copies of such illegal publications and electric products in the past 11 months this year, according to statistics from the Custom General Administration. "Forceful measures must be introduced to ensure a stable, prosperous publication market and to contribute to a peaceful and united society," said Liu Zhongde, vice-director of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Some serious cases must be handled as quickly as possible and all units and individuals involved must be punished, he said. The National Anti-Pornography Office also wants to accelerate the construction of national centres for VCD production and improve the leasing business for audio-video products to improve the quality and increase the number of publications. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: 12/27/97 Author: Zhu Baoxia Copyrightc by China Daily