China allows media to report on national emergencies

We have a feeling events like Tiananmen won't be included in a list of emergencies, though.

BY A CORRESPONDENT

26 June, 2007:

China has withdrawn a law that could have made it tougher for journalists to report on riots, disasters and other emergencies.

China’s state-controlled China Daily reported that the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress revised the law after delegates and local people’s congresses criticised the legislation, terming it as improper.

According to the second draft emergency response law, tabled at the Standing Committee’s 28th session, governments in charge of coping with an emergency should provide unified, accurate and timely information on the emergency and its development.

The proposal, first introduced in June 2006, would have imposed fines up to $13,000 on media outlets that report on public emergencies such as floods or outbreak of diseases without formal authorisation or using fabricated information.

Finally, legislators decided to eliminate the mention of fines from the draft law.

In his report, Wang Maolin, vice-director of the National People’s Congress Law Committee, was quoted by the China Daily as saying that some lawmakers have called for the government to provide unified, accurate and timely information on emergencies, and that the news media should report these emergencies “objectively.”

The new draft, which addresses concerns that local governments may use the law to suppress negative disaster coverage to avoid embarrassment, removes the requirement for government authorisation and only targets media outlets that fabricate news or use fabricated information.

Those media outlets deemed to have violated the law will be subjected to “warnings, punishment, or prosecution” if the false reporting caused “serious consequences.” The law defines “public emergencies” to include industrial accidents, natural disasters as well as public health and security crises.

There has been international criticism that China has attempted to cover up the extent of natural disasters or outbreak of diseases. In 2003, China was widely criticised for its handling of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic.

After it emerged in southern China, SARS eventually spread globally, infecting over 8,000 people and killing more than 800 people, including 349 in China.

Local authorities reportedly downplayed statistics and restricted media coverage of SARS, leading to delays in efforts to treat or quarantine the disease.

This triggered concerns among some lawmakers that local governments could use the law to cover up disasters that might reflect badly on them, such as mining fatalities caused by poor safety measures.