Reining watchdog press: China plans fines for breaking bad news

HONG KONG: A draft law on emergency management, now being considered by China’s top legislative body, seeks to impose hefty fines on the media in China if they break news reports on mining disasters, health crises and natural catastrophes without “authorisation”.

The move is being seen as an attempt to rein in the “watchdog press”, which has in recent years exposed health crises (like HIV/AIDS, SARS  and bird flu) and called mining companies to account with their coverage of recurring mining disasters, despite attempts by provincial-level officials to keep bad news out of the newspapers.

“It’s only a draft law — it hasn’t been passed yet — but it has worrisome implications for the Chinese news media,” China Media Project research associate David Bandurski told DNA in Hong Kong. Under the draft law, media outlets would face fines from 50,000 to 100,000 yuan (about Rs4-8 lakh) if they break news on emergencies without authorisation, report on the handling of such emergencies without authorisation, or publish “false” reports.

Cao Kangtai, director of the Legislative Affairs Office under the State Council told the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the highest legislative body in China, that the bill was intended to improve disaster responsiveness and ensure administrative responsibility. It was drawn up after a study of emergency management experiences in many developed countries, including the US, and based on the findings from a field study around China.

The bill stipulates penalties that local government officials face if they fail to handle emergencies or do not take precaution measures or delay emergency declaration or attempt to cover up the disaster. “On the one hand, there is a sense that there has to be better administrative control — in a positive way — in the way such disasters are handled,” says Bandurski. “On the other hand, the priority is to control information flow.”

Officials involved in disaster relief are required to release information in a timely manner and “manage” the media, but not if making the news public would hamper relief operations. In particular, Bandurski notes, the ambiguity that existed earlier about media regulations of disasters and crises had meant that reporters and editors could make use of loopholes to get their story out.

The proposal to fine breaking news has already come in for stinging criticism in an editorial in the Southern Metropolis Daily, written under the pseudonym of Zhang Ping, a veteran Chinese journalist who was among the senior editors sacked from the investigative Southern Weekend in 2001. It had in 2004 been disciplined for its investigative reporting on the SARS epidemic; the cover-up of SARS in China — which was later exposed — proved profoundly embarrassing for China’s leaders.