CCTV fires one third of work force

China Central TV might shed between 3,000 and 5,000 jobs or one third of its work force, summarizes China Media News in a round up of the rumors at China's central TV-station in Beijing.
The dismissals seem to focus on un-licensed journalists, temps and part-time university students in an effort to avoid future scandals like the news on the fake cardboard baozi's that embarrassed the broadcaster earlier.

Update: The China Digital Times comes with an interesting encore and looks for the cleanup at CCTV at the Labor Contract Law that will be in force next year:

Also following the baozi debacle reports say, central media authorities ordered CCTV to dump contractors and other freelance staff - some 2000 in all. CDT sources cite an another key motive for the staff cuts, however. In late June, the country passed its new Labor Contract Law, which comes into effect at the turn of 2008. CCTV, they’ve been told, has been maneuvering in recent weeks to comply. The law essentially forces employers to put contracts into writing within one month of employment, making it much trickier for them to hire temps. For an institutional work unit (事业单位) like CCTV, which has a limited number of staff positions and thousands more working informally, full compliance would appear quite the conundrum. Of course, as the sources acknowledged, the law could be just another excuse to clean house.