RSSChina to begin reviewing all song lyrics for 'inappropriate' content
By Tim Conneally | Published September 11, 2009, 11:58 AM
Song lyrics found to be vulgar, violent, or in otherwise poor taste are now facing removal from Chinese Web sites, the Chinese Ministry of Culture has announced.
Starting December 31, every piece of music on Web sites hosted in China needs to be approved by the Ministry of Culture before it can be made available to the public. Even songs which are not in Chinese must be translated and submitted to the government.
China's Global Times newspaper said this week that a "fast track" system will be in place where reviews will be completed in as few as three days. Since one of the main objectives is to squash negative foreign influences, Chinese user generated content (songs, video, etc.) will not be included in this review, the ministry said.
The review board weighs the lyrical content against the "Interim Provisions on Administration of Internet Culture, article XVII (original text here). Under the article which was adopted in 2003, roughly ten types of content are outlined as inappropriate for "Internet culture."
Unacceptable content is now defined as content which:
- goes against the basic principles established by the constitution
- endangers national unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity
- discloses state secrets, endangers state security, or harms national honor and interest
- incites ethnic hatred or discrimination, undermines national unity, or infringes upon national customs and habits
- advances evil cults and superstition
- spreads rumors, disturbs social order, or undermines social stability
- promotes obscenity, gambling, violence, or otherwise abets criminal behavior
- insults or slanders others, infringes upon legal rights and interests of others
- goes against public morality or the nation's cultural traditions
- goes against other laws, administrative regulations or state-instituted prohibitions
I wonder if there are any Cocteau Twins fans in China?
Their lyrics would certainly have the Government officials scratching their heads in bewilderment - lol.
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|http://www.themusicvoid....bels-get-fortune-cookie/ This article looks at how China are also getting tough on Piracy so not all bad!
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|That's a lot of unnacceptable content.
Is this because obama said something about communism in his speech that was broadcasted in china? Except for the communism and stuff parts.
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|I guess Chinese citizens are too dumb to make there own choices. Can you say "Nanny State" boys and girls?
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|Good, I hate all this rap and other s*** that makes kids all ****ed up and hate the world. We need an iron fist.
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|Whenever I read something like this I really wonder about the Chinese Government (& I suppose many others too) and their priorities considering the huge amount of spam that spews from their country every second.
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|"goes against the basic principles established by the constitution"
constitution is applied only when it favors the government,
china is becoming very controlling over there people, in fact china has rewritten half of there history already, especially when it comes to there wars, and civil uprising's,
why is china becoming so controlling over there people, so much for freedom of speech,
and really that list above could mean anything, and everything, it's hardly self explanatory, interpretation is very error prone,
i can see china having a civil revolt in the near future,
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|Ok eunichman thats what sets USA apart from all others is the right to stand up against government and let your voice be heard, F**k The Police Song for instance, No one ever seen a reason for that song till Rodney King was caught on tape and now its common for the news to report, LA riots lot of music groups of all kinds singing about there was going to be a riot in LA if things didn't change. The music back then was real, And you could learn from it if you lend a ear to what the lyrics are saying or what the artist is trying to get a cross to you,
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|while other comments below mock this policy, IMO, maybe this is something the US needs to implement.. I kinda like all the guidelines except #1, #5 and the last one, all the others make sense. Get rid of the song materil that most violent offenders and gangs listen to is just the first step in making this a peaceful and productive country. Yay China
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|Those guidelines and things suck, they are in the line of:
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That will certainly stop violence.
Maybe stop selling videogames too, because.
Jack Thompson says it too: guns don't kill, people videogames do!
Right, no need for making guns illegal or restricted.
Obama said something about making own choises and being responsible for what you do, can you believe that?
What a horrible president. Let's call him communist and socialist and other bad stuff.
He should be restricting porn, that'll stop every violence, oh yeah.
Hopefully the kids won't think they are responsible for their studies and that they have to choose and work for it.
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Are you getting the message eunichman, the people must be responsible for what they do.
That project is just a waste of government money.
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|Talking about a job for life, this just doesn't scale.
#5 is scary, I bet it's going to be used against the Buddhists. Well they are all scary. People say there are great opportunities for westerners in China but... I don't know, I don't think I could tow the party line. This makes my skin crawl.
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|*laughing*
Wow. Easiest job in the *world*!
"How about this one?"
"Banned."
"This one?"
"Banned."
"Ok, but this one should be fine, right?"
"Banned."
"Wait..that wasn't even a song, I just put a blank piece of paper in front of you."
*stamps assistants forehead*
"Banned."
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|Well with that list China will end banning 98% of all music. The last line leaves the door open to ban everything.
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|Heh. I hope they employ someone who can translate accurately.
"incites ethnic hatred or discrimination" I imagine that only applies to Chinese ethnicity and not the other way around.
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