China's General Administration of Press and Publication recently issued a circular, which requires newspaper publishers to enhance their management of content editing and to take practical measures to prevent false reports.
GAPP asks news publishers to blacklist and give a warning to journalists who have been found to write inaccurate reports, revoke the journalist's certificate of those that are involved in a serious case and remove them from news work; and banning from reporting for life those who are found to be guilty of "dire misconduct".
GAPP says that news publishers should conduct a thorough review of candidates for their news editing positions and not hire anyone who has a previous record of providing false reports and was paid to report news or made illegal profit by taking advantage of their duties. GAPP states that news publishers shall verify a piece of news before publishing or republishing it.
The circular stresses that news publishers shall set up a mechanism on assigning responsibilities on this regard.
