The Research On Government Information Disclosure In Public Crisis

At present, our country is witnessing a critical transforming period of economy and society. In the process of the rapid economic development, a variety of competitions become increasingly fierce, followed by endless social contradictions, which give rise to various public crises once the hidden "fuses" are ignited. Each crisis will cause substantial social damages and public losses, which greatly affect the social harmony and stability. That is the exact challenge that the government has to overcome. Therefore, it is the task that the governments at all levels that have to undertake on how to properly respond to and cope with public crisis.The21st century is an era of information, which has become an indispensable element of life. The publicity of government information is, therefore, inevitably required by the law-abiding society and by the democratic administration. The openness of the government information in public crises is developed on the basis of that in normal situation phase. Because the public crisis period differs from the normal situation phase, public show particularly strong desire for the information, as well as pay closely attention to the government’s response, so the disclosure of the government information plays a vital role in properly coping with the public crises.Our country didn’t begin to study the openness of the government information in public crises until "SARS" epidemic broke out in2003, which taught us a profound lesson. Substantial losses were caused for initially non-disclosure of the facts, resulting in the wide-spreading of epidemic. Since the release of the Regulation of the People’s Republic of China on the Disclosure of Government Information, our government actively responded to Wenchuan earthquake of2008, winning wide acclaim from the public and the international community. However, we are still in its early stage in the research of the disclosure of government information. There are still quite many problems in response of crises.In the first place, this thesis starting with the relevant theories on the disclosure of government information, Then I illustrate the basic theories in three aspects:people’s sovereign rights, citizen’s right to know as well as crisis communication theory. Eventually I point out the necessity of disclosure of government information in the following respects:to protect people’s right to know, to build up favorable government profile, as well as to promote the understanding among the public for government. And then I outlines some fundamental experience that how developed countries get their government information disclosed during public crisis. Seen from these experiences, I present some tips for our government to promote information disclosure in public crisis.In the second place, I lists some shortages by analyzing the current situation of our country on opening of the government information during public crises. These shortages are mainly reflected on the following four aspects:weak awareness on information disclosure, limited information communication, lack of robust laws and regulations, and inflexible channels to make the information public. The reasons after analysis are mainly as follows:backward government concept, inadequate administration of government information, lack of laws and regulations, as well as far less attention paid to the influence of web site and media.To solve the previous-mentioned problem lastly, I put forward in the last part some correspondent strategies and suggestions on opening government information during public crisis, which I intend to illustrate in four aspects:building up modern administration concept, formulating rules on administration of government crisis information, drawing up relevant laws and regulation, together with bringing media into full play.I hope, through this paper, with the research in the problems existed in publicity of government information during crisis, the relevant rules will be ameliorated, the capability to cope with public crisis can be improved, and the society become more stable and prosperous.