Chinese National TV Broadcasts a Trial

Chinese television viewers got a rare glimpse Saturday of this nation’s normally secretive judicial system at work in the first live broadcast of court proceedings ever to be aired on national television.

For four hours, viewers who tuned in Saturday morning to CCTV-1, the government’s main nationwide TV channel, watched as plaintiffs and defendants in a film copyright-infringement case squared off before a Beijing judge. Although local stations have broadcast such trials in the past, the program was the first to be broadcast on a national network, with a potential audience of 800 million people.

It was the latest sign of a greater openness in the media and in the general political situation in the world’s most populous nation.

In the last three weeks, on the same state-run channel that aired Saturday’s proceedings, Chinese citizens have been treated to candid looks at what is happening in their country--including a live, unedited broadcast of President Clinton debating Chinese President Jiang Zemin during the recent Sino-U.S. summit and Clinton’s speech to students at Beijing University.

Saturday’s legal program seemed indirectly linked to Clinton’s visit.

Since last fall, U.S. and Chinese officials have been working on a joint initiative to help China establish the rule of law, which the Clinton administration considers a key method of introducing civil liberties and democratic improvements here. Washington has encouraged more openness in the Chinese legal system, which, as an arm of the Communist regime, usually operates safely tucked away from public view.

“The live broadcast . . . is an important step for the reforms in China in the fields of democracy, law and the press,” the Beijing Youth Daily said in its Friday edition.

Unlike the Clinton broadcasts, Saturday’s was advertised in newspapers during the preceding few days, giving more TV viewers the opportunity to tune in.

In a “People’s Court”-style setting, a group of Chinese film studios accused three local companies of copying more than two dozen of the studios’ movies onto video compact discs and selling them without permission. The defendants maintained that they had the proper authorization for marketing the films.

For more than three hours, the judge in the case compelled testimony from both sides and examined witnesses, occasionally punctuating her comments with such brusque remarks as “Did you understand that clearly?” and “You’ve spoken enough.”

After closing arguments, the judge withdrew to deliberate.

In the end, she found in favor of the plaintiffs, collectively awarding six studios nearly $50,000 in damages, about half what the plaintiffs had demanded.

The three defending companies were also required to write an apology, subject to court approval, to be published in the Legal Daily newspaper.

China has been eager to enact judicial reforms, partly because Beijing believes that it can attract greater foreign investment if outside companies feel more assured of having reliable legal recourse in the event of problems.

Among other measures, the country has embarked on a campaign to train more lawyers and educate judges, many of whom are retired military personnel with little legal experience.