A vendor selling newspaper at a newsstand in Hong Kong. (Photo : Reuters)
Chinese authorities have closed or merged 1,134 local offices of major news agencies across China, more than a third of the 3,160 branches slated for the chopping block, the government’s press watchdog announced on Thursday.
Another 386 local news offices were also asked to address various violations, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) said in a statement. The remaining 1,640 branches remained untouched.
It has also led to the dismissal of 1,435 "unlawfully recruited employees," which account for 12 percent of the total staff, during the first round of shutdown, the statement added.
The crackdown is part of a campaign launched in December the previous year to regulate local branches of state-managed press and publication organizations, including the Xinhua News Agency, China National Radio and major news websites.
However, Xinhua, along with China Central Television (CCTV) and the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, had almost all their branches retained, the Global Times reported on Thursday.
Further, 16 news outlets were shut down in central China's Hunan Province alone, most of which were under specialist publications such as China Tourism News and China Real Estate Business, the report said.
According to the SAPPRFT, the targeted agencies had established several branches and recruited employees arbitrarily. Newsroom staff have also been allegedly engaging in commercial businesses, with some reporters accused of using media interviews to seek illicit profits.
In China, cases of journalists demanding money for covering up negative stories or releasing promotional ones--which are mostly fabricated--have been routinely exposed.
