ABSTRACT
History of broadcasting authority The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of The People’s Republic of China (SAPPRFT) is the current administrative department in charge of regulating China’s press and broadcasting media. The PRC’s broadcasting authority began in December 1940 with the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party’s radio station – Yanan Xinhua Radio Station (XNCR). The XNCR was set up during the Japanese military invasion of China in the Second World War, and used by the CCP as a war time propaganda machine to “disseminate news of anti-Japanese war by Chinese armies and people, and to educate and encourage Chinese people in the occupied area” (Xu, 2003a: 2). Before 1949, the CCP’s Xinhua News Agency’s (XNA) audio broadcasting team ran the XNCR. The XNA was started in November 1931 as the Red China News Agency and changed to its current name in 1937. The XNA was the first media organization set up by the CCP and was responsible for running and managing the Party’s newspaper, press agency and radio stations. It was also important in mobilizing public opinion for the CCP’s “national revolution struggle” during the anti-Japanese war and the civil war against the nationalist party (Xinhau Net, 2006). After the end of the Second World War, XNCR was continuously used as propaganda machine by the CCP. In 1948, the XNA was reformed, and a Radio Administration Department was set up to prepare for the establishment of a national radio administration organization. One year later, in June 1949, amid the victory of the CCP in the civil war and with the increasing need for broadcast media, the CCP announced that the radio broadcasting department of XNA was to be expanded to become the Central Radio Administrative Office (CRAO, 中央广播事业管理处), managing national broadcasters owned by the CCP. In terms of organizational structure, the office was under the leadership of the CCP’s Department of Central Propaganda. The CRAO and the Propaganda Department were both responsible for the supervision of the CCP’s broadcast media. After the establishment of the PRC, in October 1949, the CCP controlled the media through multifunctional roles: propaganda, industrial development and sector administration. The CRAO was renamed the Radio Department (RD, 广播事业局) in October 1949. The
duties of the RD included leading the nation’s radio broadcasters; directly leading the Central People’s Radio Station (CPRS); expanding broadcasting nationwide; and fostering and training broadcasting officials (SARFT, 2007a). It was under the supervision of the Central People’s Government’s Executive Council (政务院) (renamed the State Council in 1954). From 1952, the RD was under the supervision of the Executive Council’s Cultural and Education Committee (文化教育委员会), and its propaganda functions were under the supervision of the CCP’s Ministry of Central Propaganda (MCP). From 1954, the RD became a constitutional department of the State Council, which supervised its technical and administrative functions, while its propaganda function was still under the control of the MCP. Local governments at provincial and city level were requested to establish local radio departments, which were responsible for constructing rural broadcasting networks, and for administering local radio stations. The provincial broadcasting departments usually worked together with the provincial radio stations, sometimes under the same person’s leadership (局台合 一, Ju Tai Heyi). Local broadcasting departments were under the leadership of the RD (Xu, 2003a: 11-12). Local radio stations were direct organizations of the local people’s committee, and under the leadership of the local committee and the local RD. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), martial law (军事管制) was imposed from 1967 to 1972, the RD was renamed the Central Broadcasting Department (CRD) and was under the direct control of the CCP’s Central Committee until 1976. After the massively destructive Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, the State Council regained its supervisory power over the CRD while the MCP resumed its leadership over the CRD’s propaganda functions (SARFT, 2007b). The CRD was upgraded to become the Ministry of Radio and Television (MRFT) following the 1982 CCP Twelfth National Congress in which the CCP leader, Deng Xiaoping, announced the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics in China and initiated the open door economic reform policy, and the institutional reform of the State Council. Local radio departments were also upgraded to broadcasting bureaus. The Chinese broadcasting institution was reshaped at the 1983 Eleventh National Broadcasting Working Meeting. The central theme of the meeting was to re-establish the propaganda function among the Chinese broadcasters’ reforming goals. The meeting not only set up the “four-tier broadcasters and mix coverage” policy goal (Yu, Jiang and Guo, 2003), more importantly, Wu Lengxi, then head of the national broadcaster regulator, MRFT, announced at the meeting (Xian, 1983) that broadcasters serve the public by providing them with: (1) all kinds of information (news and government policy being the highest priority); (2) education, cultural and scientific knowledge; (3) arts, entertainment and other services. He also said that propaganda is the core function of the broadcasters. In conjunction with this, the Party’s Central Committee issued the significant 1983 No. 37 document Circular on the Outline of the Report on Broadcasting Work (CCP [1983] No. 37), which underpins the guiding principle of broadcasting development (Yu, Jiang and Guo, 2003). The document explicitly affirms the
new leadership structure of the Chinese broadcasting sector. Chinese broadcasters were under the leadership of both the government’s broadcasting department and the Party committee at the same administrative level. The Party is responsible for broadcasters’ propaganda and the government department is responsible for the organization’s development. The national regulatory MRFT supervise all broadcasters in the country. This core principle of the administrative structure had not been reshaped since the 1980s, despite the commercialization and institutional reform of the Chinese broadcasting sector over three decades. Similarly, local broadcasting authorities are subject to the dual supervision of the broadcasting authority at the higher administrative level and the Party committee at the same administrative level. This document was regarded as highly significant in China’s broadcasting history for its long-lasting impact on the role of the broadcasting media. Xu Guang Chun,1 said that “it is the first time in China’s broadcasting history that the Central Committee issued such a long formal circular in responding to the broadcasting department’s working report.”
