Recently, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang signed a revised regulation on government information disclosure, which states that governments at all levels should proactively reveal information and define the specific situations when information cannot be disclosed. The regulation will come into effect from May 15.
This means that the abuse of the “exceptional” principle of information disclosure for governments in the future will be effectively curbed, said a commentary in the Beijing Youth Daily.
Previously, rules on government information disclosure did not specify what information could or could not be released to the public, meaning some local governments took advantage of loopholes to keep information back.
In addition, there were no strict punishments for situations when governments concealed information. Officials felt it was not a big deal if they did not disclose certain government information to the public.
Because of these reasons, this revised regulation regulates that all government information shall be disclosed as far as is possible, apart from information relating to State secrets, national security, personal privacy, public security and social stability or that which would infringe any third parties’ legal rights and interests. There are routes for citizens to challenge governments over information disclosure or file lawsuits included in the regulation.
Government information disclosure is the basic requirement for building a government under the rule of law. The new regulation will do away with the many excuses that local governments previously used in a bid to hide information, and also can push governments to be more transparent and reveal more information to the public.
Old Version
