China is clamping down on imported television shows and remakes that use formats from abroad in a bid to "promote domestic originality," the country's top media regulator has said.

The move, effective July 1, will mean that the airing of remakes of foreign reality TV shows such as "The Voice of China," a wildly popular version of a Dutch program, would need to be approved by authorities, state media reported Monday.

In a statement Saturday citing the importance of promoting "Chinese cultural characteristics," the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television said it will require all television outlets to submit such shows for review two months before broadcast, the China Daily reported. Only those approved can be aired on national channels.

"The reliance on imported program formats has been squeezing out the creative incentive of domestic producers and broadcasters," the statement said. "Audiences are craving more Chinese original programs that are fun to watch and feature healthy tastes."

While Communist Party authorities hope to build up China's own burgeoning film and TV industry, they are also likely to use the measure to maintain an iron grip on such industries as a means of controlling public opinion.

Under the regulation, satellite channels can air no more than two foreign or foreign-adapted programs during prime time between 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. each year, the China Daily said. However, only one such program being shown in China for the first time may be broadcast annually, and not during prime time. Channels broadcasting newly imported TV shows without approval will be banned from showing any foreign remakes for one year.

Gao Changli, director of the administration's publicity department, was quoted as saying Sunday that the directive has been sent to all TV groups.

The announcement followed last month's opening of a "teaching and research center for socialist journalism with Chinese characteristics" in Beijing.

The new center, a joint project between Tsinghua University and Fudan University, was likely to be used in implementing orders handed down by Chinese President Xi Jinping in February for news media run by the Communist Party and the government to toe the party line, focusing on what authorities have called "positive reporting."

Media observers, journalists and academics say the environment for free speech is the tightest in decades.

China ranked last in Freedom House's annual Freedom on the Net report in 2015. In the realm of the internet, President Xi Jinping has made "cybersovereignty" a top priority, forcing users to endure crackdowns on "rumors," greater enforcement of rules against anonymity and disruptions to the circumvention tools that are commonly used to bypass censorship, the report said.