China vows anti-graft in film, radio, television industries

China's top disciplinary watchdog has announced that it will ramp up its inspections of the film, radio and television industries this year, as several cases of corruption have been discovered, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CCDI) will investigate corruption in the film, radio and television industries and will enforce related regulations, according to Li Qiufang, a CCDI official.

A CCDI inspection team stationed at the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) found 49 people in the industries "violated discipline" in 2014, the highest number in five years, according to Li, the leader of the inspection team.

"The film, radio and television industries have never been 'clean' and we are in a serious situation and must crack down on corruption in these fields," said Li.

According to Li, most of the corruption cases were found in departments that dealt with censorship, advertising, the purchase of TV series from production companies and the procurement of equipment, as well as staff engaged in the operation of large-scale shows.

In September 2014 a SAPPRFT TV series censor was sentenced to 10 years and six months behind bars for taking bribes of 300,000 yuan ($47,970).

"TV station executives have the final say in whether to let TV series pass the censors and whether or not to buy them, and some producers promise a 10 to 15 percent cut of the total distribution fees to the executives to assure their work is aired," Wang Hailin, screenwriter of the popular historical drama The Bronze Teeth, told the Global Times.

Wang said these illegal deeds have enabled some poor-quality movies and TV series to enter the market and argued that if the authorities do not implement stricter regulations, the whole industry will go downhill.

"Stronger supervision and enforcement will benefit the healthy development of the industry when its self-cleansing is insufficient," Zhang Peng, an associate professor at Nanjing Normal University, told the Global Times Monday.

However, Zhang noted that a fair industrial environment with clear standards that regulate people's behavior should be the long term solution other than anti-graft campaigns.