China has backtracked on a decision that could have made it tougher for journalists to report on riots, disasters and other emergencies, state media said yesterday.
Legislators revised the draft emergency response law after heated debate evolved over a passage warning media of steep fines for "irregular" or "fraudulent" reports, the China Daily reported.
The earlier version of the law, tabled in June last year at the National People's Congress, had warned of fines of up to 100,000 yuan (US$13,000) if the reports led to "serious consequences," the paper said.
This triggered concerns among some lawmakers that local governments could use the law to cover up disasters that might reflect badly on them, such as mining fatalities caused by poor safety measures.
To avoid this, the new draft uses vaguer language, stating that "units and individuals are prohibited from fabricating or spreading false information regarding emergencies and government efforts to cope with emergencies."
While the new draft has dropped the specific reference to the media and no longer mentions fines, it would still be possible to warn or punish people who knowingly spread false information, the paper said.
Emergencies are defined in the draft as industrial accidents, natural disasters and health and public security crises, Xinhua news agency said.
The Chinese government has been criticized in the past for covering up various disasters and emergencies.
One of the most notable cases was its handling of the SARS health crisis in 2003, when Chinese authorities denied for months that there was a problem in China.
After its emergence in southern China, SARS eventually spread globally to infect more than 8,000 people and kill more than 800, including 349 in China.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS