HONG KONG China has banned radio and television presenters from speaking in anything other than standard Mandarin, AFP quoted Hong Kong media as reporting Friday.

Under a new law that took effect on Monday the broadcasters will be taken off air unless they stick to the Chinese equivalent of the Queen's English, according to Fan Yumei, head of Beijing's Commission for Spoken and Written Language.

Fan told the ****Sun**** daily it was also now an offense to put up billboard posters containing spelling mistakes or grammatical errors.

The new media legislation is part of a drive by Beijing to impose a standard form of Mandarin across all of China, where at least 76 languages are still spoken by a diverse range of ethnic groups.

Under the new law, Mandarin Chinese and Chinese-simplified characters are defined as the only legal national spoken and written language. Any broadcaster found to be using incorrect phonetics, syntax or grammar could theoretically be sent for reeducation.