Analysis On Institutional Improvement Of China's Freedom Of Information From The Implementation Of 《the Regulations Of China On Freedom Of Information》

With the coming of information age, there is a trend for the government to adopt Freedom of Information Act. China attaches great importance on the establishment of access to government information system as increasingly more states assured such principle by law and regulations. The State Council of China adopted Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Open Government Information on April 5, 2007, and it takes effect in May 1, 2008. Is it stands for the end of the establishment of the access to government information system? This paper employs some research methods, such as, case study, literature analysis and comparative study to analyze the practice for it has been one year since the adoption of this regulation. The research found that the construction of government information publicity system has achieved some great results: the legalization of publicity of government information, graduate perfection of the Government Press Conference and government spokesman system, completion of governmental websites system. However, the imperfectness of the government information publicity system reveals itself as the practice of this regulation. There has been lacks of enough awareness serving as the assurance of this system, of the clearness of responsibilities and authorities of the organizations in charge of government information publicity, of the limitation on discretion in related cases, and imperfectness of timely news release mechanism, and so on.In order to solve all the problems mentioned above, there is a desperate need for the perfection of government information publicity system. First, the legal position of this regulation should be improved, making the Regulation a Law. Government should interact with citizen and social groups in the establishment and perfection of this system. Second, supervision system on government information publicity should be improved. Third, related laws and regulations should be established. The principle of "Freedom of information is now the rule and secrecy the exception" should be considered during the legislation process. The limit imposed on the qualification of the subject applying to access to the government information has to be removed, and the principle of "anyone could apply" should be stick to. And the legal remedies for government information publicity should be enhanced.