News programs shut down for running own reporting

Beijing's Internet regulator on Sunday shut down some programs of several commercial news portals run by a number of major Internet giants for publishing news articles that they had reported and composed themselves, in violation of recent regulations on Internet management, news site thepaper.cn reported.

The Beijing Cyberspace Administration has shut down "Geek News," a news program run by Sina, and is cleaning the forbidden content from its live channel "Sina Live."

Moreover, news programs such as "People in News", "Radian", and "Click Today" run by Sohu, news programs "Echos", "Road Sign" run by Netease have also been required to close. Website ifeng.com has already closed its "Serious-News" program.

The platforms such as websites, mobile applications and WeChat accounts of all these banned news programs will be shut down.

An official from the administration said that these channels have seriously violated recently introduced regulations which stipulate that the re-posting or releasing news articles on social and political issues can only be done if they come from news agencies run by the central, provincial or municipal governments and should also note the sources.

The official said that the administration will also fine the related websites, adding that it will enhance law enforcement and regulate the news services provided by the websites under its jurisdiction.

China gave interviewing and reporting rights to online media for the first time in November, when central authorities finally granted press credentials to employees of news websites.

The Cyberspace of Administration of China (CAC) issued a first group of online media press cards to 594 reporters from 14 "major central news portals," including the official websites of the People's Daily and the Xinhua News Agency.

Employees of commercial news portals such as Sina and Sohu were not included.

In July, the CAC ruled that online news outlets must verify social media content before publishing reports based on such content. News sites must verify social media sources and are banned from "fabricating stories or distorting facts".

The CAC has already punished some major news websites for fabricating stories this year, including sina.com, ifeng.com, 163.com and news.qq.com, run by Chinese Internet giant Tencent.