The Chinese government will impose a number of restrictions on the reporting of "vicious crimes" on the radio and television, hoping to create a healthy environment for the country's youth.

 

"We must not let improper crime reporting harm young minds," said Zhang Haitao, vice director of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).

 

"Reporting of cases that harm public security and cases of vicious crime such as kidnap and arson will be subject to strict controls. Detailed reports of detective work and investigations by the police will be banned and detailed descriptions and analysis of criminal methods and motives will also be banned," Zhang said.

 

"Programs should not exaggerate violence, murder, pornography, and horror scenes, and the name, address, photograph and anything else that might reveal the identity of a juvenile delinquent should not be mentioned," he added.

 

"Crime reporting programs have been growing and are exerting a more and more important impact on social life," Zhang said.

 

Statistics from SARFT show China currently has nine crime reporting channels and more than 200 programs.

 

"However, a lot of these programs place too much emphasis on criminal cases, inadequate legal promotion and superficial juristic analysis of cases," Zhang said.

 

"To boost audience ratings, some programs go into every little detail of the crime and completely recreate a crime scene, which have had negative influences on the young," he said.

 

Zhang also called for more reporting on civil cases and economic disputes in addition to criminal cases.

 

This is another move by SARFT to exert tighter control over China's screens after it banned some TV serials, which were said to have gone into too much details in portraying how criminals committed certain crimes.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 18, 2006)