简体中文
Chinese experts have called for specific conditions to ensure information transparency among all government departments after a fresh cabinet circular urged for greater efforts.
"Existent documents have provided general guides on the basic ideas, channels and corrective methods for the openness of government information, but they lack details and fail to address obstacles in implementation," said Wang Yukai, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance.
According to Wang, demands from citizens for the disclosure of government information have been growing but many of them were dismissed because of individual privacy as well as commercial and national secrets.
Figures from a recent report show that administrative cases about government information disclosure in Beijing increased to 551 last year from 10 in 2008 when a regulation on disclosure took effect.
However, chances remain slim for complainants as they only won 17.6 percent of last year's cases, which mainly involved livelihood issues including land expropriation, unbalanced education resources and environmental protection.
"The efficiency, quality and standards of current government information transparency work obviously can't meet public demand," said Liu Qinglong, professor with the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University.
Warning of some local governments' failure to publicize information in a timely manner and even total silence in some cases, a Tuesday circular from the State Council, or China's cabinet, called on local governments to adopt various new media channels to release information and interact with the public.
"More government departments have been resorting to their official websites as a key platform for information disclosure over the past decade, but it remains a polarized situation," Liu said.
Liu noted that some government departments -- especially those at the grassroots level -- have deserted their sites and failed to update information online.
According to Professor Wang Yukai, Tuesday's circular showed the government's resolution in building an open and transparent image and meeting public demand in information disclosure.
"That said, laws and regulations are ultimately needed to ensure the smooth implementation of information publicity work... and one after another document is no solution," Wang said.
Meanwhile, Liu urged to relegate the responsibility for information publicity to specific offices and personnel while strengthening technological training on releasing news via new media.
The Chinese government first started the practice of releasing news in the 1980s, but an official publicity system was only available after 2003 when it vowed to set up and improve the mechanism of releasing news among the cabinet as well as central and local governments.
Official figures show that more than 540 spokespeople have been hired in central and local government departments over the past decade, and a total of 2,237 government news conferences were held across the country last year, more than double the number in 2005.
In a Wednesday meeting echoing the cabinet's call, Cai Mingzhao, Director of the State Council Information Office, promised that more spokespeople from other government departments will be invited to answer questions at future cabinet news briefings, and publicizing information and interpretations on the Internet will be strengthened.
