Officials will be legally obliged to provide accurate and timely
information about public emergencies and outbreaks of animal
diseases under two new laws passed by the country's top legislature
yesterday.
The Emergency Response Law bans media organizations from
publishing false reports on public emergencies, but it cancels a
provision in an earlier draft that would have imposed fines on
media that reported emergencies without government
authorization.
The law requires governments in charge of coping with an
emergency to provide coordinated, accurate and timely information,
or leading officials will face disciplinary punishments or even
criminal charges.
Another law adopted by the Standing Committee of the National
People's Congress (NPC), the amendment to the Law on Animal
Epidemic Prevention, says the State Council's veterinary department
must promptly report outbreaks of animal diseases to the public, or
authorize provincial level veterinary departments to do so.
Information about outbreaks should also be reported quickly to
relevant international organizations and trade partners, the law
says.
Officials who fail to take prompt preventive measures, delay
reporting or try to cover up such outbreaks should be disciplined
and subject to criminal charges, according to the law.
The emergency law will take effect in November and the amendment
next January.
The existing Law on Animal Epidemic Prevention has only one
provision related to information disclosure, while the amendment
includes a chapter with five provisions.
"We've made detailed stipulations in the amendment because we
consider information transparency very important in animal disease
outbreaks," Huang Jianchu, a member of the legislative affairs
commission of the NPC Standing Committee, said.
Wang Maolin, deputy director of the NPC law committee, said the
deletion of the ban on media's report on emergencies was a result
of heated discussion among lawmakers.
He said some legislators argued that it was improper to restrict
media reports, and some local people's congresses also questioned
the restriction.
The people's congress in Dalian, Liaoning, said the expression
"without authorization" was ambiguous and could allow local
governments to cover up the truth.
Local congresses in Chongqing Municipality and Hubei and
Shandong provinces also argued that transparency is a key part of
handling emergencies and that the media's contributions should be
affirmed.
The central government has made consistent efforts to increase
information transparency since the outbreak of SARS (severe acute
respiratory syndrome) in 2003.
In April, the State Council unveiled a landmark Regulation on
Open Government Information to increase transparency and bolster
its fight against power abuse.
Protection for job seekers
In line with the new national Employment Promotion Law also
passed yesterday by the NPC Standing Committee, job applicants will
be entitled to sue employers for discrimination.
The law is intended to promote fairness in employment and
prohibit job discrimination.
The law was drawn up to help create opportunities for more than
13 million new job seekers entering the market each year,
particularly for laid-off workers, university graduates,
ex-servicemen and migrant workers in urban areas.
With nine chapters and 69 articles, the law requires governments
to coordinate employment policies in urban and rural areas to
expand employment and provide equal opportunities.
It bans discrimination against job seekers based on their
ethnicity, race, gender, religious belief, age or physical
disability.
The law says governments at all levels must create a climate for
fair employment and root out discrimination against job seekers.
Job seekers can sue employers who engage in discrimination, the law
says.
Real estate administration
The top legislature yesterday also passed the amendments to the
Law on Urban Real Estate Administration, that will authorize the
State Council to detail specific measures for the orderly
expropriation of urban houses and apartments.
To protect both people's private property rights and the public
interest, the country's new Property Law, to become effective in
October, would entitle the government to seize property only in the
public interest.
It also stressed that fair compensation must be paid and new
homes for displaced residents must be guaranteed.
As existing regulations on urban expropriations by the State
Council contradict with the property law and will be nullified, the
amendments to the law on urban real estate administration will
authorize the State Council to issue new rules to ensure smooth
implementation of the property law.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency August 31, 2007)