China, the world's largest tobacco producer and consumer, has decided to cut 'unnecessary' smoking scenes in movies and television series.
BEIJING: China, the world's largest tobacco producer and consumer, has decided to cut 'unnecessary' smoking scenes in movies and television series as part of the government's social responsibility.
In a statement, the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT), the broadcasting watchdog, has asked the censoring institutions, TV drama and film producers to try their best to avoid 'unnecessary and long-time smoking scenes'.
The administration said that its obligation and responsibility lie in the efforts to realise 'no smoking in films and TV series', the Beijing News reported on Friday.
Rampant smoking scenes in TV series 'reflect the producer's weak awareness of smoking control', the statement said.
The statement was a response to public outcry against the 'too smoky' TV series 'New Shanghai Bund' aired nationwide earlier this year.
Members of the Beijing-based non-profit organisation, Think Tank Research Centre for Health Development, submitted a formal complaint to the SARFT in July this year, criticizing the TV series for showing too smoking scenes.
The 42-episode drama, 'New Shanghai Bund,' is the latest remake of a 1980 classic which turned Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-Fat into a star. It revolves around a group of gangland mobsters in 1930s Shanghai.
Think Tank found that 36 per cent of Chinese TV dramas made in the past two years showed actors smoking in an average of 30 scenes, with one appearing at an average interval of 12 minutes.
The SARFT, however, admitted that as there is no effective laws and regulations on smoking control in China, a ban on smoking scenes lacks on legal basis.
China has already decided to ban all forms of tobacco promotion by January 2011, so as to fulfill its commitment made to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
China formally became a member of the convention last January. Figures from the Ministry of Health show that China has an estimated 350 million smokers, almost a third of the world's 1.1 billion smokers.
Cigarette makers spent more than 1.6 billion yuan (USD 212 million) to promote their brands last year, 'China Youth Daily' reported.
In 2005 the government collected 240 billion yuan (USD 31.7 billion) in tobacco taxes.
Up to 12 per cent of deaths in China are caused by tobacco related illnesses, and by 2025, that figure will climb to 33 per cent, a researcher with Chinese Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Yang Yan said earlier this year.
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