China Media Project looks at coverage of “information openness” in the Chinese media over the past year, with the passage of the National Ordinance on Openness of Government Information:
Since national legislation on government information release took effect in China on May 1 this year, Chinese media have taken to the topic of information openness in a big way. And while the lasting effects of the National Ordinance on Openness of Government Information (政府信息公开条例) remain to be seen, there can little doubt that media have used the very fact of the law’s existence to advance discussion of its spirit — the value of timely information sharing.
Here is what the term “information openness”, or xinxi gongkai (信息公开), has looked like in China’s media over the past year. There is clear upward trend in coverage, cresting in May as the legislation took effect and the Sichuan earthquake further underscored the importance of information access.
