On Openness Of Government Information During Public Crisis In China

Nowadays, in the age of information, in company with the fastdevelopment of science and continual progress of human, all kinds ofcontradiction and problem emerge in endlessly. China now is in the period ofinnovation, there are fuses inducing crisis everywhere. Therefore, thegovernmental crisis management is a management in constant state. Thenuclear of crisis management is communication, accordingly crisisinformation will hold the balance, which require the government publicizecrisis information to people in time, exactly and adequately. Right to know ofthe public have to be guaranteed at the time of crisis. Cultivating the ability ofendurance is helpful for people in judging reasonably before crisis, andavoiding chaos and larger crisis because of ignorance. The abnormal featureof public crisis endues the study of government information openness withmore significant meaning.The article consists of 4 parts. In part one there are the basic concept andtheory, i.e. the definition of crisis management, government informationopenness and the theory of government information openness. Public crisis isa situational state which threaten severely the primary interest, value of thepublic, social order and fundamental structure. Outburst, danger, pressure,indeterminacy, duplexity and sociality are the characters of public crisis.The government information openness is defined as the juristic behavior ofcrisis information publication of the government office to the societyaccording to legal proceedings, and the juristic institution composed of scope,main body, procedure, legal consequence of publication. Right to know andtheory of crisis communication are the rationales of government informationopenness. Right to know is the fundamental right of citizen, whereaspublication of information is the fundamental obligation of the government.Laws of many nations and international regulated that right to know is theelementary human rights. In addition, more than 40 countries have enactedlaw of information publication. The lowest standard of franchise in crisis stateare established to some extent in the laws and constitutions in some nations.Also the fundamental rights in crisis are prescribed not to be deprived in theprovision. Communication is the core of crisis management, and the spread ofcrisis information is the key of efficient management. In abnormal state, thedifferentiation of openness features are activeness, in time, verity andsufficiency in comparison with normal state.The functions, content and channels of government informationopenness are introduced in the second part. The main functions are as below.First, By opening crisis information, the government will be in the positiveposition, which is good for the controlling of the crisis in an ordered scope.Next, The public will obtain the truth of crisis, reduce scare, be prepared, andbe away from rumor. Again, The public will hold a reasonable expect to thegovernment, understand and coordinate the requirement of government, thusthe efficiency and confidence will be enhanced in the office. Last, Hightransparency of government behavior, restriction of free decision right,suppression of going their own way of local governments, and holding backof corruption will be available.The content of government information openness is hard to concludethanks to diversities of public crisis. However on the whole, there are crisisinformation, settlement and information of process. The channels are of multilayer and diversity, they are mostly are:government spokesman; the mass media like network, broadcast, TV,newspaper; straightaway posters, handbooks and hotline and the show ofleader.In part three the present issues of government information openness incrisis state are mentioned and analyzed. First of all, we have no legislativeinstitutional environment. There are on Laws of Government InformationOpenness, and uniform Emergency Law in our country. Furthermore, there isno allocation of openness in other separate emergency laws. Next, imperfectexists in the aspect of crisis management. The problems predominantly are asbelow: Collection of information are not in time or exact. The informationamong department are dead, cannot be shared, which influences the collectionand publication. Again, the government websites could not give play to the...