Online democracy pushing forward real reform

• Source: Global Times
• [08:08 January 12 2010]
• Comments

Editor's Note:

Last year saw a number of major scandals exposed by the work of netizens. Government officials seemed to have a growing understanding of the role of the Internet in facilitating public opinion, but how much does this reflect real reform? Xie Xinzhou (Xie), director of Market & Media Research Center of Peking University, and Wang Yukai (Wang), deputy director of E-government Expert Committee of the National School of Administration, conducted an online exchange with netizens of People's Daily Online (PO) on Internet opinion and political culture.

PO: What were the key characteristics of Internet events in 2009?

Xie: Netizens and the Internet media economy both matured. The focus of Internet discussion of social issues has shifted from examining isolated cases to an in-depth concern with institutional issues, and from the "unimportant people" at the bottom of society to officials and rich people.

Every year there is a review of the events of the past twelve months, but on the Internet this is mainly done by netizens. Through search engines, forums and blogs, network events, even if they are the smallest piece of news, can be continuously enlarged.

PO: What progress has there been in official response to netizens? Can you list some typical cases? Which cases do you think have not been well handled?

Xie: The official response to netizens is getting much better. I learned that some local governments have set up an agency dedicated to dealing with Internet news and responding to netizens' questions and criticisms. People are monitoring the Internet and they have a comprehensive response plan for public relations crises.

It should also be pointed out that this "serious" attitude toward Internet news is still not active but passive in many places. Some "responses" are more like prevarications, attempting to muddle through, while others are busy "putting out fires."

With a passive rather than an active attitude, public opinion cannot be effectively guided and dangers cannot be turned into opportunities.

I think the treatment of "fishing" in Shanghai, where traffic police framed drivers into being fined for operating "illegal cabs," and the response to the death of Li Qiaoming, a young man who was killed while in police custody while, according to the police, playing "hide and seek," were quite successful.

There are three reasons for this. The first is that both events were fully discussed through the Internet and traditional media, winning a high degree of public concern.

The highest authorities responded while Yu Zhengsheng, Shanghai municipal party secretary, also personally criticized the wrongful acts.

Finally, both incidents resulted in real and constructive reforms, showing a good interaction between Internet opinion and social life and acting as a fine example for other areas.