The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) Tuesday called off The Mask, a sex TV talk show supposed to be debut at midnight Jan. 1 next year.

China's top TV authority asked all TV stations not to broadcast the TV talk show on the grounds that its producer, the Beijing Shixi Media Company, does not have a license to produce TV and radio programs, SARFT said in a circular made public Tuesday.

The administration banned all TV and radio stations from buying programs from "unqualified producers."

The SARFT required local TV and radio agencies to begin investigating the TV and radio programs that local media have bought "to guarantee every minute of TV and radio program gives right guidance to public opinion," according to the SARFT circular.

The TV and radio stations should improve the management on making talk show programs, acknowledged the SARFT circular.

They need to produce talk shows talking topics about major issues in China's political and economic life and basic interests of people, the circular said.

Those shows "giving wrong guidance to public opinion and leading to bad social impact" will be forbidden, the circular added.

SARFT urged Beijing municipal TV authority to seriously penalize the Beijing Shixi Media Company for producing TV programs without license.

The half-hour program The Mask is said to talk about issues in common Chinese people's daily sex lives with experts on hand to offer advice.
 
(Xinhua News Agency December 15, 2004)