China will censor what its television administration deems to be "vulgar content" from its television screens, such as extramarital sex, violence and pornography.

The information was revealed at an on-going national television censorship conference held in Chengdu by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) and attended by hundreds of television station chiefs and producers.

Entertainment programs, talk shows and dramas in local dialects will be the major targets of SARFT's inspections, a source from the conference said.

"We will make great efforts to straighten out the TV programs," Wang Weiping, deputy director of the television drama department under SARFT, said.

He said SARFT had designated two teams to make secret inquiries and collect evidence of explicit TV programs.

"Local TV stations will be severely punished if their programs are found to contain vulgar content," Wang said.

This is another move by SARFT to exert tighter control over China's screens after it banned some TV serials which were said to have gone into too much detail in portraying how criminals committed certain crimes. It also banned prime time TV serials which showed fictional versions of historical events.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)