China will sich mit elektronischer Aktenfreigabe anfreunden

Peking will mehr Behördeninformationen über das Internet zur Verfügung stellen: The State Council vowed recently to facilitate e-governance, bringing the public and governments closer through the Internet. The move was made following growing complaints and criticisms against governmental websites being user-non-friendly and lacking useful information. Currently, the State Council Informatization Office is working with other central government departments to draft a regulation requiring all governmental organizations to publicize information of concern to the public. The regulation is expected to take effect this year. The office's department director, Zhao Xiaofan, said that people should be able to access information related to administrative affairs on official websites of governmental agencies by then. But in the past, people had no easy access to governmental documents and information because some of them were labelled as classified and hidden in archives. Since China embarked on market-oriented reforms at the end of 1970s, the public has been crying for more government transparency. China's highest leadership has echoed such calls and launched its ambitious e-government initiative in 2000. During previous years, China has made great progress on the initiative and the next step should be focused on enhancing online interactions between the public and government, Hu Xiaoming, vice-president of the National Information Centre told China Daily. Hu said that a law is being drafted to supervise the government's behaviour in the release of information. "If the law is approved by the National People's Congress, government agencies shall be legally bound to publicize information related to government affairs in a timely way," said Hu.

Wie dieser Vorstoß nur wieder mit der verschärften Internet-Regulierung zusammenpassen soll? Alles mal wieder etwas paradox im Umgang mit dem neuen Medium in China: Against the wishes of Tsinghua University, non-students -- even alumni -- will not be able to participate in the campus chat room, as Propaganda Department increases Internet monitoring. ... The mainland's most-popular campus chat room, Beijing's Tsinghua University, has been closed to non-student visitors in the latest move to clamp down on the free exchange of ideas on internet forums. ... Maintained by tech-savvy budding scientists, the chat room has become renowned for its intellectual debate and social commentary, as well as exchanges on the latest information technology, since its launch in 1996. The operators added that non-student visitors had greatly enriched the chat room. "Off-campus visitors have been part of the community and we will not forget them," they said. Many of the chat room's frequent visitors were former students of Tsinghua University. In terms of popularity, the chat room was on a par with Peking University's Yitahutu, which boasted 30,000 users before it was shut in September. The policing of campus-related web sites was stepped up after the Ministry of Information Industry released guidelines on the regulation of non-profit activities on the internet. From Sunday, chat room operators and bloggers will be held liable for any "objectionable content".