Notice of the State Press and Publication Administration on Carrying out the Verification of Newspapers in 2023

Guoxin Departure Letter [2024] No.2

The press and publication bureaus of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, the ministries and commissions of the central and state organs, the newspaper departments of people’s organizations, and the Propaganda Bureau of the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission:

According to the "Regulations on the Administration of Newspaper Publishing", "Measures for the Annual Verification of Newspapers and Periodicals" and other relevant regulations, the notice on doing a good job in the verification of newspapers in 2023 is as follows.

I. Verification Time

20 February to 31 March 2024

Second, the key points of verification

(1) Key verification contents

1. Content orientation and quality. Whether newspaper publishing units always take studying, propagating and implementing the Supreme Leader’s Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era as their primary task, thoroughly study, propagate and implement the Supreme Leader’s cultural thought, resolutely defend the "two establishments", strengthen the "four consciousnesses", strengthen the "four self-confidences" and achieve the "two maintenances", persistently use the Supreme Leader’s Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era to forge a soul, and continue to push the party’s innovative theory armed forces to go deep and practical; Whether it is clear-cut to adhere to the correct political direction, public opinion orientation and value orientation, adhere to unity, stability, encouragement and positive publicity, sing the main theme, carry forward positive energy, and consolidate and expand the mainstream ideological public opinion in the new era of endeavor; Whether to put social benefits in the first place and realize the unity of social benefits and economic benefits; Whether to publish bad and harmful information content such as laws and regulations prohibiting publication, guiding problems, vulgarity and kitsch, and endangering social morality; Whether to compile and publish overseas news information products without authorization; Whether there are quality problems such as the quality of editing and proofreading, the quality of publishing form is unqualified, and the quality of publishing can not meet the prescribed standards for a long time.

2. Publishing qualification and ability. Whether the newspaper organizer strictly implements the ideological work responsibility system and fully performs the responsibility of "managing people, managing affairs and managing assets"; Whether there are non-public capital components in the capital structure of newspaper publishing units and competent organizers; Whether the newspaper publishing unit has a sound guidance and quality management rules and regulations, whether it strictly implements the editing management system such as separation of editing and management, "three audits and three schools", whether it can carry out publishing activities normally, and whether there is a situation that its business has deteriorated and it is insolvent; Whether the main person in charge of the newspaper publishing unit meets the relevant regulations and holds a valid post training certificate.

3. Compliance with the law. Whether the newspaper publishing unit changes the licensing matters such as the competent organizer and business scope without authorization, whether it establishes local institutions without authorization, whether it delivers the sample newspaper in time according to the regulations, whether it has not been put on record or closed for more than 180 days, whether it has published illegal advertisements and been notified and punished by the relevant departments, and whether there are illegal and illegal problems such as selling, renting, transferring the serial number, layout and publishing license; Whether the employees have any illegal issues such as publishing job information without authorization, illegally setting up new media accounts such as Weibo WeChat, illegally applying for a journalist’s card, news extortion and false news.

4. Media construction and management. Whether newspaper publishing units resolutely implement the decision-making arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and further promote the construction of all-media communication system, whether to establish and improve an integrated system and mechanism that adapts to the production and communication of media, and whether to achieve unified online and offline guidance and management requirements for newspapers and new media; Whether there are irregularities in the operation and management of the new media and other serious violations of laws and regulations.

(2) Key verification units

1 newspaper publishing units whose newspaper names and business scope have changed in the last two years.

2 newspaper publishing units that have stopped publishing, stopped publishing, failed to publish normally for a long time, and have no publishing conditions.

3. Newspaper publishing units that have problems in violation of laws and regulations, are suspected of violating laws and regulations, or the masses report that there are content-oriented errors, news extortion, false news and other problems.

4 newspaper publishing units with low publishing quality and prominent editing and proofreading errors in recent years.

Third, organize the implementation

The press and publication bureaus of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps are responsible for the annual verification of local newspapers, and the Propaganda Bureau of the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission is responsible for the annual verification of military newspapers.

Newspapers published in Beijing by ministries and commissions of the central and state organs and people’s organizations are verified by the Beijing Municipal Press and Publication Bureau. The central and state organs, ministries and commissions, people’s organizations and newspaper departments should actively cooperate with the provincial press and publication management departments to do the annual verification work.

The State Press and Publication Administration is responsible for the unified organization, deployment, supervision and guidance of the annual verification of national newspapers.

Iv. verification procedures

(1) Unit self-inspection. The newspaper publishing units shall carefully conduct self-examination and self-correction according to the requirements of this notice, write an annual self-inspection report, log in to the "2023 Annual Newspaper Verification System" on China reporter website, fill in and print the "2023 Annual Newspaper Verification Form".

(two) report to the competent organizer for inspection. Each newspaper publishing unit will submit the annual self-inspection report and the paper materials of the 2023 Annual Newspaper Verification Form to the organizer and the competent unit, and the competent organizer will conduct inspection, issue audit opinions and affix the official seal on the 2023 Annual Newspaper Verification Form.

(three) reported to the provincial press and publication management department for verification. Each newspaper publishing unit will submit the 2023 Annual Newspaper Verification Form stamped with the official seal of the competent organizer, together with the annual self-inspection report, newspaper sample report and other verification materials, to the provincial press and publication management department. Provincial press and publication management departments shall carefully verify paper materials according to laws and regulations, log in to the "2023 Annual Newspaper Verification System" to review the information provided by newspaper publishing units and approve the verification opinions. For key verification units, the verification opinions should be approved on the basis of investigation, conversation and on-the-spot inspection.

(4) Submitting it to the State Press and Publication Administration. The provincial press and publication management departments shall summarize and submit the 2023 annual newspaper verification report and the 2023 annual newspaper verification results catalogue of local newspapers through the "2023 annual newspaper verification system". The annual verification report should include the annual verification measures and results, the basic situation of newspaper publishing and achievements, compliance and discipline, the effectiveness of integration and development, as well as existing problems, difficulties and suggestions. The annual verification report in 2023 and the catalogue of newspaper verification results must be submitted in another paper document.

The State Press and Publication Administration will supervise and inspect the work in key areas, conduct targeted spot checks on key verification units this year, and inform the provincial press and publication management departments of the annual verification work as appropriate.

V. Verification requirements

(a) focus on strengthening the organization and implementation. All relevant management departments should strengthen responsibility, strengthen organization and leadership, act quickly and make careful arrangements. Combined with the actual situation of the local department, we carefully formulated specific work plans, innovated management methods, adjusted and optimized verification measures, strengthened supervision and inspection and spot checks, and ensured that the annual verification work was completed with high standards and high quality. All newspaper publishing units should implement the main responsibility, refine measures according to the annual verification requirements, and arrange special classes to implement them, so as to ensure the efficient completion of the annual verification materials filling and submission within the prescribed time limit.

(2) Adhere to strict examination and control. All relevant administrative departments should adhere to the word "strictness", strictly verify procedures, strictly regulate standards, severely punish accountability, and strictly block management loopholes. It is necessary to highlight key verification, establish key supervision files in combination with the actual daily supervision work such as newspaper review, quality inspection, social benefit evaluation and case investigation, and conduct comprehensive inspection and strict verification one by one according to the requirements of verification work. It is necessary to strictly examine and verify the verification conclusion in accordance with the Measures for Annual Verification of Newspapers and Periodicals. Those who suspend the verification, fail to pass the verification and do not participate in the verification should explain the reasons and the treatment measures to be taken.

(three) to ensure the quality of verification data. All relevant management departments should tighten the compaction responsibility chain, strengthen the verification data audit and check, and focus on the important verification data by comparing it with previous verification data and daily management data to ensure that the verification data is complete, true, standardized and accurate. If the verification data reported by the newspaper publishing unit is incomplete, untrue and irregular, it shall be returned, and if it still does not meet the requirements after re-reporting, the verification shall be suspended. Newspaper publishing units should strengthen the awareness of verifying data quality, carefully collect and standardize the filling, do not resort to deceit or perfunctory things, and lay a solid foundation for the quality of source data.

(4) Do a good job in follow-up work. It is necessary to do a good job in the follow-up work of annual verification in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Regulations on the Administration of Newspaper Publishing and the Notice on Standardizing the Procedures for Cancellation of Newspapers. For newspapers that fail to participate in the annual verification as required, fail to participate in the annual verification after being urged, and fail to pass the annual verification, the local provincial press and publication administration department shall apply to the State Press and Publication Administration for revoking its newspaper publishing license. For newspapers that are closed, closed, unable to be published normally for a long time, and no longer have publishing conditions, practical measures should be taken to promote their deadline for transfer or closure. On the initiative of the organizer in charge of the newspaper, it should be submitted to the State Press and Publication Administration in a timely manner for filing and cancellation of registration.

State Press and Publication Administration

January 11, 2024

(Contact: Wang Qi, Tel: 010-83138397, Address: No.40, Xuanwumenwai Street, Xicheng District, Beijing)