Yunnan announces microblog for information transparency
- Source: Global Times
- [03:14 November 27 2009]
- Comments
By Ji Beibei
Yunnan Province's publicity department has launched a microblog on the Internet to encourage the public to comment on policies implemented by the provincial government. The blog was launched Saturday.
"We found it necessary to enhance the transparency of government information releasing and learn the public's reaction," Gong Fei, an official at local government publicity department, told the Global Times Thursday.
Visitors could open accounts and make comments on t.sina. com.cn. They just need to click the button "My concern" on t.sina.com.cn/1662558237.
Microblogging is multimedia blogging that allows users to send short text messages plus photos and audio clips, and publish them. Each entry should be less than 140 characters.
Yunnan government is the first provincial government to "eat the crab," a Chinese idiom used to describe a person trying something new before everyone else.
Microblogging also works as a channel for the public to know what officials are doing and about how the government has handled some unexpected incidents, Gong said.
One of the blog entries was the protest organized by merchants at a market in Luosiwan last Saturday.
Some 100 merchants blocked the road around the market to protest a government plan to relocate the market in a suburban area.
"The job of the government is to serve the people, and it has to understand public opinions. It should not only care about its political achievements while ignoring the interest of the public," an Internet user commented.
