Officials will be legally obliged to provide accurate and timely information about public emergencies and outbreaks of animal diseases under two new laws passed by the country's top legislature yesterday.

The Emergency Response Law bans media organizations from publishing false reports on public emergencies, but it cancels a provision in an earlier draft that would have imposed fines on media that reported emergencies without government authorization.

The law requires governments in charge of coping with an emergency to provide coordinated, accurate and timely information, or leading officials will face disciplinary punishments or even criminal charges.

Another law adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the amendment to the Law on Animal Epidemic Prevention, says the State Council's veterinary department must promptly report outbreaks of animal diseases to the public, or authorize provincial level veterinary departments to do so.

Information about outbreaks should also be reported quickly to relevant international organizations and trade partners, the law says.

Officials who fail to take prompt preventive measures, delay reporting or try to cover up such outbreaks should be disciplined and subject to criminal charges, according to the law.

The emergency law will take effect in November and the amendment next January.

The existing Law on Animal Epidemic Prevention has only one provision related to information disclosure, while the amendment includes a chapter with five provisions.

"We've made detailed stipulations in the amendment because we consider information transparency very important in animal disease outbreaks," Huang Jianchu, a member of the legislative affairs commission of the NPC Standing Committee, said.

Wang Maolin, deputy director of the NPC law committee, said the deletion of the ban on media's report on emergencies was a result of heated discussion among lawmakers.

He said some legislators argued that it was improper to restrict media reports, and some local people's congresses also questioned the restriction.

The people's congress in Dalian, Liaoning, said the expression "without authorization" was ambiguous and could allow local governments to cover up the truth.

Local congresses in Chongqing Municipality and Hubei and Shandong provinces also argued that transparency is a key part of handling emergencies and that the media's contributions should be affirmed.

The central government has made consistent efforts to increase information transparency since the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2003.

In April, the State Council unveiled a landmark Regulation on Open Government Information to increase transparency and bolster its fight against power abuse.

Protection for job seekers

In line with the new national Employment Promotion Law also passed yesterday by the NPC Standing Committee, job applicants will be entitled to sue employers for discrimination.

The law is intended to promote fairness in employment and prohibit job discrimination.

The law was drawn up to help create opportunities for more than 13 million new job seekers entering the market each year, particularly for laid-off workers, university graduates, ex-servicemen and migrant workers in urban areas.

With nine chapters and 69 articles, the law requires governments to coordinate employment policies in urban and rural areas to expand employment and provide equal opportunities.

It bans discrimination against job seekers based on their ethnicity, race, gender, religious belief, age or physical disability.

The law says governments at all levels must create a climate for fair employment and root out discrimination against job seekers. Job seekers can sue employers who engage in discrimination, the law says.

Real estate administration

The top legislature yesterday also passed the amendments to the Law on Urban Real Estate Administration, that will authorize the State Council to detail specific measures for the orderly expropriation of urban houses and apartments.

To protect both people's private property rights and the public interest, the country's new Property Law, to become effective in October, would entitle the government to seize property only in the public interest.

It also stressed that fair compensation must be paid and new homes for displaced residents must be guaranteed.

As existing regulations on urban expropriations by the State Council contradict with the property law and will be nullified, the amendments to the law on urban real estate administration will authorize the State Council to issue new rules to ensure smooth implementation of the property law.

(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency August 31, 2007)