The Provisional Regulation on Management of Internet Publications, jointly issued by the General Administration of Press and Publication and the Ministry of Information Industry, is expected to intensify the supervision and management of the Internet publications, and at the same time to stipulate explicitly the rights and obligations of the Internet publication organizations so as to promote a healthy and orderly development of the publication business on the Internet.

The Internet publication that the regulation covers refers to the Internet information service in which the information suppliers provide the terminal users with the works of their own, the compiled and adapted works of others by way of Internet for the users to browse, read and download. The works mainly include the officially published books, newspapers, periodicals and audio-visual works as well as electronic publications and other works whose contents ever published on other media and the works of art and literature, natural science and engineering technologies.

According to this regulation, the General Administration of Press and Publication is fully responsible for the supervision and management of the nation's Internet publication. It stipulates the nation's Internet publication plans; takes the responsibility for organizing the implementation of the regulation by stipulating guidelines, policies and regulations; checks and approves the establishment of Internet publication institutions; and supervises the contents of the publications according to relevant laws and regulations. In terms of some behaviors conflicting with the nation's publication laws, it has the power to impose punishment on them. The departments engaged in news publication in each province, autonomous region and municipality directly under the central government are responsible for the Internet publication affairs within their own administrative district; they are also responsible for auditing the people who apply for Internet publication work, as well as imposing punishment on those outlaws in this regard.

This regulation will be in force as from August 1, 2002. The units engaged in the Internet publication activities in line with the state regulations before have to go through the approval in accordance with the regulation within 60 days after its being put into effect.

Editor Responsibility System

The organizations engaged in Internet publications should put the editor responsibility system into practice. There must be editors specialized in supervising the contents to be published in order to ensure their legality on the Internet.

This is part of the content incorporated in the newly issued Provisional Regulation on Management of Internet Publications. According to this regulation, the organizations engaged in the Internet publications should put on the homepages their serial numbers as approved by the General Administration of Press and Publication . Should the contents published are not true or unjust which incur the violation of interests and rights of citizens, legal persons or other lawful organizations, the institute for the publications must make open correction in order to wipe out the negative influence and take up civil liabilities in conformity with the law.

The activities carried out by Internet publication organizations must observe the state laws and decrees dedicated to the protection of copyright, and should mark out the proper signs of copyright related to the works published or delivered on the Internet.

As for topics or themes concerning national security or social stability, they should be reported to the General Administration of Press and Publication for recordation before being published on the Internet according to the regulation dedicated to the significant topics' recordation. And those important topics that never go through the recordation cannot be published on the Internet, otherwise, besides the charged stop on publication or distribution, the institute involved will be warned and charged a fine ranging from 10,000 yuan (US$1207.7) to 50,000 yuan (US$6038.6). For serious cases, a punishment of limited-period business-stop will be issued, or even worse, the approval revocation will be imposed on such outlaw organizations.

This regulation also stipulates that the organizations engaged in Internet publication should keep duplicated copies of contents and dates of issuing, websites' URL and domain names published or delivered on the Internet for some 60 days, and they should be ready for the relevant departments to make a check on them. Any violation should result in the institute's being ordered to make rectification or shutdown, should the case be serious.

No Religious Cult and Superstition in Internet Publication

In accordance with the provisional regulation, the Internet publication must not carry any content in propagation of religious cult and superstition.

According to the regulation, the contents that the Internet should not cover also include the following issues: those that violate the basic principles stipulated clearly in the Constitution; those that derogate the country's unity, sovereignty, and the completeness of its territory; those that concerning national secrets, endangering public security or the nation's dignity and interests; those that instigate ethnical hatred or discrimination to undermine national unity; those that violate any ethnic group's customs and traditions; those that disseminate the rumors so as to disrupt the public order and break up social stability; those that promote bawdry, gambling, violence and crime-abetting behaviors; those that bring insults and slanders to others, and further infringe others' legitimate interests; those that will do harm to social morality and our outstanding cultural traditions; and finally, other contents that are prohibited by law, administrative rules and other regulations issued by the state..

In addition, the regulation has listed clearly a separate clause that the publications for the underage must not include any contents instigating them to mimic the behaviors against social ethics or for committing crimes, nor should they include any such contents as terrorism and cruelty that will do harm to the psychological health of the underage.

Internet Publication Should Go Through Approval Procedures

The engagement in Internet publication activities must be subject to approval. Any Internet publication activity without being authorized should be banned absolutely, and all the facilities, special tools used for illegal publications and illegal earnings should be confiscated and the institutes concerned should be subject to fine.

The provisional regulation brought out by the General Administration of Press and Publication and the Ministry of Information Industry has made a clear-cut stipulation as to the above-mentioned. As learned, for an institute engaged in the Internet publication business, it must be able to accord with the four conditions besides the "Provisional Regulation on the Management of Internet Publications."

They are to have a definite scope for publication business, to have rules and regulations abiding by the law, decrees and stipulations, and to have a necessary organization and special personnel for compilation and publication as well as an amount of funds, facilities and sites catering to the publications.

(china.org.cn by Feng Shu, July 18, 2002)