China will strengthen its protection of informants as a growing number are facing threats by officials, a senior official with the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said.

The measures will include the setting up of a unified reporting and hotline website nationwide by the end of the year.

To improve efficiency in dealing with corruption reports, appraisal groups made up of officials from the reporting centers of procuratorates, and the anti-corruption and dereliction inspection sectors will be established at various levels, Bai Huimin, deputy director of the reporting affairs department of the SPP, said.

"We will thoroughly investigate cases of retaliation against informants," Bai was quoted by Procuratorate Daily as saying on Monday.

"We will also severely punish officials disclosing the content of reports. A 'responsibility-seeking system' will be introduced."

A better rewards system for informants will also be introduced soon to encourage more people to come forward.

Data show that 60 percent of nearly 200,000 cases uncovered by the procuratorates each year originate from tip-offs by members of the public.

However, the number of informants or witnesses killed or seriously injured has increased from less than 500 annually in the 1990s to more than 1,200 in recent years.

Currently, informants can submit an online report by logging on to the SPP's official website at: http://jubao.spp.gov.cn.

The informant will automatically get a password, which he or she can use later to check progress on the report.

"The Internet has become a popular way to submit reports as it is much more convenient than mailing letters, phoning or visiting in person a procuratorate," Bai said

The Zheng Dashui bribery case in 2005 was the first to be uncovered by the procuratorates through an online tip-off.

A court in east China's Jiangsu Province sentenced Zheng to seven years' imprisonment and confiscated property valued at 270,000 yuan ($35,000).

To date, more than half of more than 3,000 procuratorates have online reporting of cases.

"By further optimizing Internet resources, reports will first enter the highest procuratorate's network, then we will divulge the information to the provinces involved and supervise the investigations," Bai said.

Experts have called for stronger laws to protect informants and witnesses.

"Besides some reference in the Criminal Procedure Law and a few policies introduced earlier by the SPP, we don't have a specific law," Wu Danhong, a professor with Chinese University of Politics and Law, told China Daily.

Without such a law, judicial departments have to independently protect informants.

"If all the resources of judicial departments can be pooled, the business of protecting informants and witnesses could be improved," Wu said.

(China Daily September 25, 2007)