Study On The Film Censorship In China From The Perspective Of Administrative License

Viewed from the perspective of administrative law, every film has to be subject to the censoring of competent authorities before they are licensed a Film Public Show Permit to be screened in China. Taken in this sense, existing film censorship is typical of administrative license. Since China?s reform on film industry in 2002, Chinese movie projection market has seen an amazing double-digit growth each year. However, no further reform on film censorship has been made in China since 2006. What?s more, in terms of censorship authorities, standards and procedures, there is still a lot in conflict with modern principles of law. Consequently, numbers of industry insiders and scholars are developing the viewpoints that it is increasingly difficult for existing film censorship to cater to the development of film industry. To ensure the healthy progress of film industry, it is necessary to improve relevant laws and systems. As advocated in the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18 th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, rule by law means administration according to law. As a result, it is a matter of course to include film censorship, one of the administrative licenses, into the framework of “rule by law and administration according to law”. Beginning with administrative license and based on existing laws and regulations relevant to film censorship in China, the paper digs deep into existing problems arising out of film censorship in China through normative analysis and comparative analysis. In addition, it probes into film censorship in Singapore and the UK, in an attempt to find out ways to improve film censorship in China.Excluding the introduction and conclusions, the paper is composed of four sections: Section I is involved mainly in some concepts related to film censorship, including the concepts of film and censorship, legal attribute of film, the necessity of film censorship, the positioning of administrative laws for film censorship, etc. From the perspective of authorities, standards and procedures of film censorship included in existing laws and regulations, Section II elaborates problems challenging existing film censorship in China, for example indefinite rights and responsibilities of censorship authorizes, confined censorship status, too stereotyped censorship standards, unjust and non-transparent procedures, etc. With method of comparative studies, Section III introduces the film censorship rating system mainly led by the government in Singapore and the industry self-discipline oriented film censorship rating system in the UK respectively, in an attempt to see what can be used as reference to the improvement of film censorship in China. From the perspective of administrative license, Section IV proposes specific measures to consummate film censorship, accelerate the legislation of Law of Film Industry Promotion, and explore the establishment of a dual-track system for film censorship characterized by dominant administrative license and additional industry self-discipline oriented film censorship rating system.