Ignore the press and face music, officials told

By Hu Yinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-20 09:56

Party and government officials who bully the media or ignore interview requests will be held accountable under a new guideline released by Yinchuan, capital city of Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

The city said that people who breach the new rules may be suspended and advised to leave their posts, said Zuo Xinjun, secretariat of Yinchuan's Commission for Disciplinary Inspection.

The guidelines would "further regulate the behaviors of Party and State department staff and improve their work", Zuo told the Yinchuan Evening News.

Furthermore, officials who chat online or play the stock market and computer games during work time will also be punished under the guidelines.

Yinchuan is the latest city to implement a framework for cultivating media-friendly officials.

Dandong, China's border city with the DPRK, last month released a circular that included handling of the media among performance evaluation criteria for local officials.

Yu Jingning, a renowned online commentator based in the central Hubei province, said the Yinchuan guidelines were "necessary and inspiring".

"Some governments have too often been pushed around by the 'dogs that bark most' when it comes to balancing the interests of the local National People's Congress, the local committee of the People's Political Consultative Conference, the media and the public," Yu wrote in his blog.

The media and the public "may not ever stand a chance with government departments in 'duo maomao'," said Cao Lin in the China Youth Daily.