Inquiry about legal dislocation in the entertainment industry
The "red line" misses a minute
The law is the lowest morality, and it is also the "red line" for stars to engage in various activities.
However, many “idols” who are supposed to take on more value-oriented functions of society under the aura of much-anticipated aura have many red bars that frequently cross the bottom line: false endorsements, yin and yang contracts, tax evasion, fights, and getting caught up. "Porn gambling, drug driving, rape, indecent infringement, and even dancing with capital sticks, crimes in the capital market... The contrast in images is staggering; the resulting major setbacks for Xingtu are staggering.
A question
Why is the entertainment industry regarded as a "depression of legal knowledge"?
In the fourth season of the ongoing "Talk Show", a Shanghai Huangpu traffic police player attracted attention.
Li Dan revealed that the process of discovering this contestant originated from the social activities between his Xiaoguo culture and the local police. According to Li Dan’s original motivation, "As everyone knows, our company is a depression of legal knowledge"-2020 , This thriving comedy company has been hit hard by actor pool prosecution for salary and champion Cam’s drug use.
Ironically, even if he took the initiative to popularize the law, Li Dan himself was punished by the Beijing Haidian Market Supervision and Administration Bureau with an administrative penalty of 870,000 yuan on August 24 for publishing an illegal advertisement that "the content of the copy is vulgar and insults the dignity of women." .
Lawyer Lin Ziqi, Master of Criminal Law of Sun Yat-Sen University, summarized the four legal risks that celebrities often involve: celebrities' drug-related risks (including drug use, allowing others to take drugs, illegal possession of drugs), legal risks involved in celebrity endorsements, and celebrity tax laws Risks, star investment legal risks.
There was a lack of penalties for celebrities endorsing false advertisements in the "Advertising Law".
It is this kind of legal blank that makes the celebrity endorsement products deceive consumers constantly, and the income from celebrity endorsement advertisements and the responsibilities they should bear are obviously not equal.
Due to the lack of awareness of risk prevention and the vague legal definition, celebrity endorsement lawsuits are increasing.
In September 2015, the "Advertising Law" added celebrity endorsement clauses and improved the definition of false advertising, making celebrity endorsements and false advertising regulated by the law, allowing celebrities to bear more legal responsibilities.
As a result, cases of celebrities’ false advertising endorsements have dropped significantly, and both the brokerage company and the celebrities themselves will be more cautious at the stage of signing the contract.
Once there is a problem in the cooperation, it will be cut immediately, reducing the impact on the celebrity.
For example, in May of this year, Ma Yili was exposed to the suspicion of joining fraud for the milk tea brand he endorsed. Ma Yili immediately issued an apology letter through his personal social platform and announced the termination of the contract.
Tax evasion has always been the hardest hit area for celebrities involved in the case. Traffic stars like Fan Bingbing and Zheng Shuang who have tens of millions of fans have turned a deaf ear to national laws and regulations and relevant departments’ repeated orders, ignoring relevant requirements for prohibiting "sky pay" in the film and television industry, and evading tax subjectively and deliberately. obvious.
Celebrities have high incomes and diversified sources of income. They should have fulfilled the basic responsibilities and obligations of a taxpayer. However, many celebrities and their teams have tried every possible way to avoid their legal responsibilities through "yin and yang contracts" and other methods.
The risks caused by celebrity investment are new phenomena in recent years, and many celebrities are familiar faces in the investment world.
The boundary between the entertainment circle and the capital circle has gradually become blurred. Many celebrities hide behind the scenes, starting various companies and intervening in the capital market.
Compared with other ordinary investors, celebrity investors can get more help than ordinary investors because of their celebrity status.
At the same time, star investment also has huge legal risks.
In 2017, Zhao Wei and his wife were banned from the securities market and fined for five years by the Securities Regulatory Commission in accordance with the Securities Law for affecting the fairness, justice, and openness of the market.
Objectively speaking, the aforementioned acts of false propaganda, tax evasion, and capital market manipulation also exist among other groups of people.
Needless to say, these behaviors are not unique in the entertainment industry.
According to statistics, as many as 12 celebrities were detained for drug-related matters in 2014.
All of these, coupled with the magnifying effect of celebrities as public figures, give the outside world the impression that "entertainment practitioners generally have a weak legal consciousness".
Second question
Why is it difficult to rely on an agent to spread the law to stars?
In the eyes of the outside world, celebrities are the same as those in the workplace. There will be induction training when entering a brokerage company; in a high-risk industry, the company will have one-to-one education on the law, and before the contract is signed, there will be brokers and bosses to help check, why there will be violations What about the legal situation?
A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily learned during interviews that it is true that most cultural companies, media companies, and brokerage companies have legal specialists or hire legal specialists, but the current entertainment industry is like the one mentioned in "Northern Ruins". Strong agents like "Sister Hua" are still rare, and most of them are celebrities. They are the agent and the first party of the brokerage company. The latter serves more celebrities, and the two are a community of interests.
For celebrities’ drug abuse, cheating, and other private life violations, the staff around them will pretend not to know it even if they know it, and they will not actively inform them when advertisers conduct background checks. “Dongchuang Incident” helping artists with public relations and moving is also a “work category”. ".
An industry insider told the Beijing Youth Daily reporter that a certain agent eventually received a hush fee to change jobs because he warned his artists about the potential legal risks; there are also practitioners with professional beliefs and moral bottom lines who discovered that the artists had illegal problems. Regardless of personal "money", choose to terminate the cooperation.
inquiry
Refine laws and regulations to escort the reconstruction of the entertainment industry
It is undeniable that many celebrities have committed crimes because they have been in a depression of legal knowledge for a long time without knowing it, or they have stayed in a small and closed circle for a long time and are accustomed to bad deeds, or they only think that money and popularity can settle everything.
For example, the long-term malformed relationship between celebrities and fans has caused many celebrities and practitioners to think that "sleeping fans" should be taken for granted.
Therefore, to sum up, the reasons why celebrities break the law can generally be classified into two types: one is that they are weak in legal consciousness and belong to ignorance;
For the former, make-up lessons are a top priority.
In July 2021, the Training Institute of the State Administration of Radio and Television and the China Federation of Radio and Television Social Organizations jointly sponsored the "Training Course for Actors and Agents to Promote the High-quality Development of TV Drama Creation and Production".
In the training class, the relevant leaders of the Policy and Regulations Department of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television introduced the relevant policies of the State Administration for industry issues such as bad artists, high-priced film salaries, and Yin-Yang contracts; the training classes also invited China to pay attention to star studios and artists’ taxation issues. The head of the listing department of the Securities Regulatory Commission and the partner of Ernst & Young (China) Enterprise Consulting Co., Ltd. will give lectures on the detailed rules of listed company supervision and taxation policies.
For the latter, punishment is a necessary means.
"Inferior deeds" artists were blocked, Fan Bingbing and Zheng Shuang were punished for tax evasion, and Wu Yifan, who was suspected of rape, was arrested.
The law not only protects celebrities, but also restricts celebrities.
The special status of celebrities as public figures does not mean that they can be arbitrarily infringed on the rights and interests of portraits, privacy, etc., and at the same time, they will not escape legal sanctions because of their aura.
This "zero tolerance" attitude is very necessary and effective for punishing bad artists and strengthening industry self-discipline.
The film and television works are collective creation, and the star law is out of place, which not only exposes himself to the darkest moments of his career and life, but also causes considerable losses to the film and television industry.
Tang De Film and Television suffered heavy losses due to the Fan Bingbing and Gao Yunxiang incidents, and some small and medium-sized companies were wiped out.
Today, it has become the consensus of the industry to strictly restrict the appearance of inferior artists and related works, and artists have also become the biggest uncontrollable risk of the entire film and television industry.
A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily found that taking advantage of the Olympic year, many major manufacturers took the initiative to replace their spokespersons from entertainment stars to sports stars in the first half of this year to avoid risks.
Immediately after the Olympics, Xiaomi officially announced the signing of Su Bingtian as the brand spokesperson of the latest generation. In the past, Xiaomi’s position has been reserved for entertainment stars.
A celebrity accident, many classic film and television works were put into the cold, some new works have not been broadcast before they fell to the sea.
To this end, some people in the industry have called for more detailed regulations to be introduced to give clearer guidance to the aftermath of the film and television works that have been implicated and the crews who are starting to remake them, so as to change the "one person catches a cold, and the whole family takes medicine". situation.
After all, celebrities who lose their position in the law should be punished by the law, and their diligent creative work needs the protection of laws and regulations.
Text/Reporter Yang Wenjie
Link
Artists who violate the law SARFT may restrict the broadcasting of relevant programs
In February 2020, the State Administration of Radio and Television issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of the Creation and Production of TV Series Network Dramas".
Among the requirements: First, strengthen the source guidance. When applying for the record and publicity, the production organization must promise to the provincial bureau that the script creation has been basically completed; the second is to oppose the content "water injection". Short play creation within the scope; the third is to do a good job in reporting the production cost allocation ratio.
The total remuneration of all actors in each TV series and network drama shall not exceed 40% of the total production cost, and the remuneration of the main actors shall not exceed 70% of the total remuneration.
In March 2021, the State Administration of Radio and Television promulgated the "Law of the People’s Republic of China on Radio and Television (Draft for Comment)", which clearly stated that "if the chief creators of radio and television programs cause adverse social impacts due to violations of laws and regulations, the radio and television authority under the State Council Necessary restrictions may be imposed on the broadcasting of relevant programs".
On August 27, 2021, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television stated that it firmly supports the tax authorities' decision to deal with the tax evasion case of actor Zheng Shuang.
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television pointed out that Beijing Century Partner Culture Media Co., Ltd. and Zheng Shuang seriously violated the TV series production cost allocation ratio requirements, concealing the truth and providing false materials when applying for the TV series "Ghost" distribution license, in accordance with the "Regulations on Radio and Television Administration". According to regulations such as Internet Audiovisual Program Service Management Regulations, TV Drama Content Management Regulations, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television decided that the TV series "A Chinese Ghost Story" (issuance license number: (京)jushenzi (2020) No. 018) should not be broadcast; Radio and television broadcasting organizations at all levels, radio and television video-on-demand business organizations, and network audio-visual program service organizations must not invite Zheng Shuang to participate in the production of programs, and stop broadcasting programs that Zheng Shuang has participated in.
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television stated that tax evasion, "yin and yang contracts", and "expensive remuneration" violated laws and regulations, disrupted the order of the industry, and impacted the bottom line of social fairness and justice. The SARFT "zero tolerance" for this.
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television will further strengthen the standard management of performers' pay, strengthen industry management and team education, and resolutely hold accountable performers and related institutions who violate laws and regulations, and promote the healthy development of the industry.