Some 635 newspapers and magazines have been forced to cut their umbilical cords from government departments and Party organs during a media reform blitz in China since July last year.

All of them no longer receive subsidies from government departments and Party organs nor are they distributed through government and Party networks since the State Administration of Press and Publication (SAPP) issued a regulation on July 30 last year and started a cleanup nationwide.

SAPP announced on Friday, jointly with the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, a statement to ban government and Party officials from dabbling in distributing the newspapers and magazines.

Government and Party officials are forbidden to take up any part-time position in newspapers and magazines, the statement said.

SAPP reiterated it would separate the personnel, distribution and financing of the newspapers and magazines from government and Party organs.

Deputy Director Liu Binjie of SAPP told Xinhua in August last year that the central government has decided to weed out some media that can yield no social or economic profit.

The action is involving over 2,000 newspapers and 9,000-plus magazines in China.

Press reform will help the media to better supervise the government and safeguard social justice, which is also the reform aim of the Chinese government, said Yu Guoming, a professor on media with the People's University of China.

(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2004)