China confiscates about15 mln "illegal" publications in 2015

China hasconfiscated 14.88 million copies of publications that lacked publishing licenses or contained banned content last year as the governmenttightened controls over the officialmedia outlets.
These publications were involved in 7,213 cases across China, and authorities received over 100,000 "tip-offs" from the public on such misconduct,the National Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal Publications Office in a statement.
"In 2015, we achieved prominent results in securing a sound cultural environment on and off the Internet and protecting the healthy growth of minors,"it said yesterday.
Italso included details on 10 major cases.
In one case, a ring headed by a suspect surnamed Liu allegedly sold more than 260,000 pornographic DVDs in east China's Shandong and Jiangsu since 2013.

So far, police have arrested 22 suspects and the case, with an estimated worth of 6 million yuan (USD 910,000).

Other cases involved printing and spreading publications without official licenses, or making and selling books, magazines or disks that contained lewd, superstitious or violence or terror-related content.
One case saw a trio given jail term of five years, six months and eight years, six months for founding an unlicensed magazine that published untruthful articles to lure investment.
A number of journalists in the official media as well as media networks have been indicted last year for alleged corruption and malpractices.