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)