Feng Ji, former deputy director of the Culture and Entertainment Program Center of China Central Television (CCTV), was convicted of accepting 600,000 yuan (US$72,500) in bribes and sentenced to 11 years in prison by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court on October 20.

He is the second senior CCTV executive to be convicted of economic crimes in the past 10 months, following Zhao An, former director of the same department. Zhao was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment by a Beijing court late last year for accepting bribes.

The 47-year-old Feng became deputy director of the Culture and Entertainment Program Center after serving as the deputy director, then director, of CCTV's Film and Television Program Department. He spent many years handling the production, purchase and broadcasting of TV dramas.

In early August 2003, the Anti-Corruption Bureau of the Supreme People's Procuratorate passed information about Feng Ji’s activities to the Beijing municipal anti-corruption authorities. Feng was arrested soon after.

He was convicted of accepting 100,000 yuan (US$12,100) from a man named Zhao, the deputy secretary of a TV artists association in Heilongjiang Province.

In 1998, Zhao shot a TV series entitled Bloody Times, which received little attention. In November that year, through intermediaries, Zhao gave audition tapes and a videotape player to Feng Ji and opened a 100,000-yuan deposit account in his name. Feng used 61,000 yuan to pay off a house loan and transferred the remainder to an account owned by his wife. In January 1999, based on Feng's advice, CCTV signed an agreement to purchase Zhao's series at a price of 80,000 yuan per episode.

Feng was also convicted of accepting 500,000 yuan (US$60,400) from Wang Dong, the head of the Haiyun Film and TV Program Studio of Hainan Television Station, to broadcast his TV play Elder Brother in a prime time slot at the end of 2001. Wang remitted the money to the account of Feng’s wife.

Although he initially denied accepting any cash, investigators found proof that Feng had received the money when they searched his home.

Wang was recently sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for bribery by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court.

(China.org.cn October 23, 2004)