By Xinhua,
On May 12, a powerful earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale jolted Sichuan Province, southwest China, with its tremors felt in most parts of the country and some neighboring nations.
Minutes later, the Xinhua News Agency began pouring out stories on the quake, while the China Central Television (CCTV) interrupted its regular programs to give viewers round-the-clock coverage of the disaster.
Death toll from the devastating earthquake increased to 55,740 nationwide as of Friday noon. In Sichuan alone 55,239 people had been confirmed dead as of 7:00 p.m. Thursday, according to official figures.
The whole world was watching the quick and efficient relief work carried by the government and the people, seeing tens of thousands of military and civilian rescuers rush to the quake zone, with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao standing on the ruins to soothe the survivors and encourage relief workers.
Some observers attributed the timely and overall coverage of the quake to the ideological emancipation that accompanied the country’s reform and opening-up drive over the past 30 years, which brought about remarkable political progress and transparency in China.
In the past, breaking news was a top secret to China’s own people and the international community was poorly informed or left to guess.
On July 28, 1976, a quake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale devastated Tangshan City in northern China and severely affected Beijing and Tianjin municipalities, causing more than 240,000 deaths.
But the death toll was not declassified until three years later,by a daring Xinhua veteran editor Xu Xuejiang, who happened to learn about the death toll of the Tangshan earthquake at an academic workshop in 1979.
“I made tremendous efforts to get the authorities to agree to publish the figure,” recalled Xu, who acted as a deputy editor-in-chief of Xinhua in the mid-1990s.
The deadly epidemic of SARS (Severely Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in 2003 was another good example. It was covered up by some local governments in the initial weeks and the public went into a panic. Beijing Mayor Meng Xuenong was later forced to step down.
It was SARS that made the Chinese authorities aware of the importance of protecting the public’s right to know and the dangers and risks of a possible government cover-up.
This year, the Chinese media did not hesitate to report big events like the severe winter weather in southern China, the Lhasa riot on March 14, and the derailment and collision of passenger trains in Shandong Province on April 28.
“Globalization means that nobody can cover up any news,” said Wang Xiaozhen, an executive of CCTV. “The viewers want us to release news in a timely way.”
In recent years, the Communist Party of China led by Hu Jintao has tried hard to deepen political reform. The media have been allowed to play a bigger role in promoting political transparency.
The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in October 2007 impressed people with the progress in political reforms, by accepting the concept of protecting people’s right to know, participate, express themselves and scrutinize the government, which drew great public attention.
At the Party congress and this year’s parliamentary session in March, Chinese and overseas journalists were quite free to observe panel discussions and interview legislators.
Nowadays in China, both the government and the public are paying increasing attention to issues relating to people’s lives, Wang said.
The Provisions on the Opening of Government Information, which took effect on May 1, say that the government must publicize the information necessary for the public to know widely or participate in.
Meanwhile, the Law on Emergency Responses, enacted Nov. 1, does not prohibit media from reporting accidents on their own.
Information transparency on the quake is the latest, direct proof of China’s ideological emancipation, said Xiong Wenzhao, a professor with the Law Institute of the Central University for Nationalities.