Following last month's ruling by World Trade Organization that China broke international rules by restricting which music, movies and books could be imported, the country has appealed, once again setting back attempts by media to gain access to that market, the Los Angeles Times reported. The WTO ruling states that China is not allowed to force non-Chinese media companies to distribute content via state-owned companies.

China stated in an appeal that the WTO panel "committed errors of law and legal interpretation in concluding that none of the measures are necessary to protect public morals."

According to the Financial Times, the ruling did not go against the country's censorship of non-Chinese media or reject the import quota of 20 foreign films that go through the state-run China Film company. Instead, it stated producers of copyrighted material "should not be forced to use monopoly distributors and that music companies should be able to form joint ventures with Chinese enterprises to sell music over the internet," the article stated.