Xinhua Reports on Regulations on Personnel Engaged in News Reporting and Editing: Reports Must Implement a Real Name System When They Are Published

The following is a partial translation by CECC staff of an article published on Xinhua's Web site discussing new rules restricting who may engage in journalism. A CECC report on the nature and impact of these rules is available here.

News reports shall implement a real name system when they are published by the media.

The Communist Party Central Propaganda Department, State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television, and the General Administration of Press and Publication today issued the Interim Provisions on the Administration of Those Employed as News Reporters and Editors, setting forth the aforementioned rules.

. . .

The rules require that news reporting and editing personnel must be guided by Marxism, Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, and the important ideology of the "Three Represents," support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party; support the socialist system; establish political consciousness, mass consciousness, and responsibility consciousness; implement encouraging a united and stable society, focusing on correct propaganda as the guiding principle; grasp correct guidance of public opinion; support the establishment of reform, openness, and modernism; serve the people; serve socialism; and overall serving the Party and the country. They must respect the Constitution and the law, respect the Party's news propaganda discipline, protect the interests of the Party and the government, and protect the fundamental interests of the masses. They must strictly protect the secrets of the Party and the country.

. . .

Anyone conducting public interviews must display journalist credentials that have been recognized by a news publishing unit or a radio or television agency and issued by the administrative agency responsible for press and publishing. . . . Any news reporting or editing personnel who are stripped of their journalist credentials may not engage in news reporting or editing work for five years following the day of the revocation; anyone convicted and subject to a criminal penalty for intentionally committing a crime shall not be allowed to engage in news reporting or editing work for the rest of their lives.