Op-Ed Contributors
It's not for us to reason why, we should be told
By Chen Jie (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-31 07:50
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It is time for the country's regulator of radio, film and television to increase the transparency of its work.
A month ago the popular TV series Dwelling Narrowness was removed from BTV and the rumor was that this was at the behest of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).
My colleague called SARFT to confirm the speculation. Finally, after a frustrating day of getting no helpful answers, she turned to the administrations' website on which she found no information about the issue.
So eventually she gave up and had to write the article without any comment from the organization.
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The outcome was that because the show appeared to be banned it suddenly became even more controversial and everyone wanted to see it. Underground DVD sales and downloads of the show skyrocketed.
While I am not in a position to judge whether it was right or wrong to pull the show, the point is rumors and misinformation were flying and people need an explanation from the SARFT.
This seems to be a pattern.
Three weeks ago another colleague, who was working on a story about the export of Chinese TV productions, wrote a formal interview request letter and waited in vain for a reply.
Last week it was my turn to be frustrated. Reuters reported China had revoked permission for cable operators to distribute Sun TV due to its "outspoken talk shows".
I was assigned to find out why from SARFT. The only reply I got after dialling five or six different numbers was: "I don't know, I can't comment."
Surely it would be better for SARFT to comment on these issues?
It would prevent rumors from circulating and if people were given a good reason for the action, they would be more likely to accept it.
For example, I believe most people agree that shutting down BT and similar file-sharing websites, as what happened recently, is a positive action in the fight against piracy.
The problem is SARFT, which is responsible for this, started the ban without any explanation. Not until two weeks later did it give sporadic response under mounting pressures from netizens and the press.
Now people have gone back to buying DVDs from hawkers on the streets, which does not solve the problem of piracy. If anything it seems to make it worse.
In fact many netizens have said they would like to pay a reasonable fee to download movies. The question is how much and where to pay?
SARFT could have published clear rules to protect the rights of the legal copyright owners on the one hand, and on the other hand propose a reasonable price and method for netizens to access movies.
This would have been the smart thing to do and an example of good public relations.
(China Daily 12/31/2009 page8)
