SARFT Uses Accreditation Authority to Silence Critical Television Host

March 29, 2006

The State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) used its authority to accredit television hosts to shut down the television show of well-known economist Lang Xianping (also known as Larry Lang) in late February 2006, according to a March 7 Radio Free Asia article (in Chinese) and a March 14 Financial Times article. According to Lang's assistant and Shanghai-based television producers, SARFT shut down Lang's program on the grounds that he lacked a required government certification that he speaks standard Mandarin Chinese. Lang is a Taiwan-born professor of finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. According to the Financial Times:

The State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) used its authority to accredit television hosts to shut down the television show of well-known economist Lang Xianping (also known as Larry Lang) in late February 2006, according to a March 7 Radio Free Asia article (in Chinese) and a March 14 Financial Times article. According to Lang's assistant and Shanghai-based television producers, SARFT shut down Lang's program on the grounds that he lacked a required government certification that he speaks standard Mandarin Chinese. Lang is a Taiwan-born professor of finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. According to the Financial Times:

Mr. Lang made his name by attacking the sale of state assets at what he said were often fire-sale prices in under-the-table deals to private entrepreneurs. Mr. Lang's tirades against the sale of state assets struck a nerve in a country increasingly concerned about the corruption involved in the rapid accumulation of wealth by some entrepreneurs in recent years. The government agency that oversees large state enterprises banned management buyouts in early 2005, largely as a result of the controversy generated by Mr. Lang, and has only recently slightly eased the rules.

SARFT requires all television editors, journalists, and hosts to be accredited by the government, and in addition to language standards, also imposes ethical and ideological requirements. For example: