Beijing municipal authorities are considering making some information about government officials public while examining the definition of a State secret.

According to the new legislation proposed by the Beijing Municipal Office of Information, the government would publish data that has, until now, been considered to inflict on the privacy of officials, sources told China Daily.

"We believe that some personal affairs of governmental officials, such as their income, could be made public," Wang Yu, an official with the regulation department of the information office, said Tuesday.

At the same time, the definition of a State secret, which has sometimes been used as an excuse for governments to keep information away from eyes of the public, would be examined and possibly re-evaluated, sources said.

Part of the motivation is the changes in China's society. What was once considered a secret, may no longer be one.

Wang's office released the draft legislation last week and opened it up to comments from the public.

According to the draft, personal details, duties and post changes of local governmental officials will have to be made public.

"This is only a draft. We will add more things to it if residents believe they need know more about officials," Wang said.

The government will leave the draft legislation open to opinions and comments until April.

But the official emphasized that his office is only responsible for drafting the legislation and does not have final say.

"We will hand in the draft to the Beijing municipal government's Legal Affairs Office for a formal version. It still needs final approval from the municipal government," he said.

The released draft, however, protects private information of residents collected by the authorities and forbids the publication of State secrets.

"The definition of State secret in our draft refers to that in the State law to ensure State secrets, which was approved by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in 1988," Wang said.

But Wang said some of the definitions of a State secret are already out of date and need to be further revised.

"We were asked for an opinion on the issue last year and were informed that the law is expected to be revised," he said. This was not confirmed by other authorities Tuesday.

The Guangzhou Municipal Bureau for the Protection of State Secrets made public more than 100,000 pieces of information last year which were previously defined as State secrets.

Previous draft legislation that protected media outlets that released information on public figures, was deleted before it was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in 2002.

One example that highlighted the need for such protection was an accusation brought by Zhang Xide, former Party Chief of the Linquan County in northwest China's Gansu Province, against authors of a best seller - Investigation into Chinese farmers - for infringement on his right of fame.

Zhang claims the book's assertions that he beat down appeals by local farmers to higher authorities are not true.

He asks for 200,000 yuan (US$24,200) in compensation.

The draft legislation says the government must release information about any epidemics, disasters and accidents in the capital city.

Another 14 items of governmental information that must be released are also listed.

(China Daily February 25, 2004)