SARFT Official Expresses Concerns about Television Hosts' "Political Quality"

June 27, 2005

Hu Zhanfan, deputy director of China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television, has criticized hosts on China's domestic television entertainment programs, according to a June 25 Beijing Youth Daily article. The article cited Hu as saying he believes that problems with the programs arise partly as a result of the hosts' "political quality." Televisions hosts, like journalists and editors, are de facto employees of the government and serve at the government's discretion. Under these circumstances, a rebuke from a senior Chinese government official is equivalent to a warning to hosts to conform their political ideology to that of the Communist Party or face termination.

In December 2004, China's state-run media reported that SARFT had issued two notices intended to regulate the political ideology of television editors and reporters, and the private lives of television announcers.