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Zombie news multiplies as officials refuse to give answers
By Ni Tao |
March 15, 2013, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
NEWS quickly goes stale, and in China it not only goes stale but also quickly falls through the cracks of media and official attention.
When one breaking story is replaced by another, the public is often left asking questions ? such as, what really happened? Too often these answers, which the public is owed, are not forthcoming, ever.
This is because after major public incidents, such as an accident or a political scandal, there is always a great deal of official spinning and stumbling.
In the meantime while replies are delayed, with regular subterfuge such as "officials are busy and not available for comment," it often happens that something else will pop up to distract public attention, and lower the heat on individuals concerned in the earlier case.
For instance, the reports of illegal discharge of effluent in Weifang in Shandong Province, which caused an uproar two weeks ago, have not been confirmed or updated, leaving the public queries hanging in mid-air.
This type of news item that ends abruptly with no follow-up is dubbed lanwei xinwen, literally zombie news. Officials hope the story will die and go away.
We have a legion of such "zombies" that are decisively cleared only when the national legislature and political advisory body convene their annual meeting, or lianghui.
At this year's lianghui, regional government officials found themselves compelled to take on tricky questions about long-forgotten news from dogged, pesky reporters, and there is no more hiding from the limelight.
This time they behave correctly like "school children handing in homework" and readily accept interviews, said an editorial in the China Youth Daily.
But their availability and affability as new media darlings is likely to evaporate once the lianghui is over and some of them get back to the usual business of stonewalling.
That's why we cannot expect the 10-day lianghui to lay to rest all the "zombies," since they will grow in numbers and haunt us again next year.
Worse, they eat up time originally devoted to more pressing issues of the day.
When one breaking story is replaced by another, the public is often left asking questions ? such as, what really happened? Too often these answers, which the public is owed, are not forthcoming, ever.
This is because after major public incidents, such as an accident or a political scandal, there is always a great deal of official spinning and stumbling.
In the meantime while replies are delayed, with regular subterfuge such as "officials are busy and not available for comment," it often happens that something else will pop up to distract public attention, and lower the heat on individuals concerned in the earlier case.
For instance, the reports of illegal discharge of effluent in Weifang in Shandong Province, which caused an uproar two weeks ago, have not been confirmed or updated, leaving the public queries hanging in mid-air.
This type of news item that ends abruptly with no follow-up is dubbed lanwei xinwen, literally zombie news. Officials hope the story will die and go away.
We have a legion of such "zombies" that are decisively cleared only when the national legislature and political advisory body convene their annual meeting, or lianghui.
At this year's lianghui, regional government officials found themselves compelled to take on tricky questions about long-forgotten news from dogged, pesky reporters, and there is no more hiding from the limelight.
This time they behave correctly like "school children handing in homework" and readily accept interviews, said an editorial in the China Youth Daily.
But their availability and affability as new media darlings is likely to evaporate once the lianghui is over and some of them get back to the usual business of stonewalling.
That's why we cannot expect the 10-day lianghui to lay to rest all the "zombies," since they will grow in numbers and haunt us again next year.
Worse, they eat up time originally devoted to more pressing issues of the day.
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