China's top legislature on Sunday pored over an emergency
response law which bans the fabrication and spread of false
information on accidents and disasters and requires government to
provide accurate and timely information.
The draft emergency response law was submitted Sunday to the
six-day 28th session of the Standing Committee of the National
People's Congress (NPC), or China's top legislature, for a second
reading.
The draft emergency response law was submitted for first review
in June 2006. At that time the draft included a provision saying
that "news media that irregularly report the development and
handling of emergencies without authorization or release fraudulent
reports will be fined between 50,000 yuan (or US$6,250) and 100,000
yuan, if the reports lead to serious consequences."
The provision sparked heated discussion amid lawmakers. Some
said information transparency is crucial to handling emergencies
and that the media's contribution should be affirmed and
praised.
They said the expression "irregular reports" was ambiguous, and
could be used by some local governments as an excuse to prevent
objective reporting by news organizations. Media supervision was
needed to ensure that government officials did not hide or
misrepresent information regarding emergencies, they said.
In his report, Wang Maolin, vice director of the NPC Law
Committee, said that some lawmakers held that government should
provide unified, accurate and timely information on emergencies,
and news media should report emergencies "objectively".
"Some lawmakers questioned the appropriateness of imposing fines
on those who fabricate or spread false information about
emergencies, others argued that stronger sanctions were required,"
Wang said in his report.
Finally, legislators decided to eliminate the mention of fines
from the draft law. Also omitted was the specific reference to
reporting of emergencies by news media.
The draft now states that "units and individuals are prohibited
from fabricating or spreading false information regarding
emergencies and government efforts to cope with emergencies."
Units and individuals who know that information regarding an
accident or a disaster is untrue must not spread it, the draft
said.
Offenders will be warned. If their offences lead to serious
consequences, their business licenses will be revoked. If the
offenders are government officials, they will be given
administrative punishments, said the draft.
Behavior that contravenes public security management rules or
criminal statutes will lead to prosecution, the draft said.
The draft said "people's governments in charge of coping with an
emergency should provide unified, accurate and timely information
on the emergency and its development."
The State Council should establish a national information system
of emergencies to share information between governments at all
levels, the draft said.
It also said that when facing more than one choices of measures
in dealing with emergencies, the government or relevant organs
should choose the one that can best protect people's interests.
Taking lessons from the outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, the Chinese government has since
maintained a more open attitude towards media coverage of major
crisis and emergencies.
To date, all ministries and a large number of local governments
have appointed their spokespersons and established the mechanism
for regular media briefing.
Currently, China's media are providing timely reporting on
emergencies, such as bird flu cases, coal mine accidents,
explosions and air crashes.
Emergencies are defined in the draft as industrial accidents,
natural disasters, and health and public security crises.
(Xinhua News Agency June 25, 2007)