China will cut 90 national award programs of entertainment, journalism, and publications to 24 in accordance with a regulation issued by the country's relevant departments.

The national awards for entertainment, including movies, music and performance, will reduce from 44 to 18, national awards for journalism will drop from 14 to two, while those for publications will be down from 31 to three, said sources with the departments here Sunday.

The Department of Publicity of Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, the Ministry of Culture, State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, State Administration of Press and Publication and Information Office of the State Council have started the work in line with the regulation.

According to the regulation, several government departments and national associations such as China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and All-China Journalists Association will be allowed to host national awards in their fields.

Internet websites, agencies, companies and other organizations and individuals are banned from granting any national award entitled with "China" and "national" or disguising the award as contest and billboard, said the regulation.

The award organizers are forbidden to charge any candidate or finance from any contributor, the regulation said, adding it aims to safeguard the fair, justice and authority of national awards.

Source: Xinhua