China urges timely report of work safety accidents

BEIJING - Chinese authorities have urged relevant departments to regulate their information-publication mechanisms in order to report work safety accidents in a timely manner.

Noting frequent accidents in the area, the Work Safety Committee of the State Council said in a recent circular that related departments should expand public supervision channels and report on safety-related accidents in a timely manner, including via email and Sina Weibo, China's most popular Twitter-like service.

The committee also called for making improvements to the press-release system in order to better respond to sudden accidents and increase the credibility of information.

Despite the government's regular calls for putting more focus on work safety, the country still sees frequent tragedies caused by potential hazards and some work units have reportedly tried to conceal the severity of accidents.

In China's coal industry alone, 32 major accidents occurred in the first half of the year, leaving 470 people dead or missing.