The government should release investigation results on sensitive public issues as promptly as possible , says an article on Xinhua website. Excerpt:

On July 12, the municipal government of Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, finally announced the results of an investigation into the closely watched case of "illegal building of villas on land set aside for subsidized housing". The real estate developer was fined, but no government official was punished.

Netizens have questioned the findings of the report and urged the local government to probe deeper into the land scam. In reply, the government said it would continue the investigation and punish the officials involved in the scandal.

The government would not have conducted further investigation had there been no pressure from the public (in this case netizens).

Whenever something sensitive arises, some local governments form high-profile probe teams, vowing not to let any wrongdoer go scot-free irrespective of his or her stature.

But more often than not such probe teams procrastinate, waiting to see how the public reacts to the issue. If people no longer seem interested in the incident, they close the investigation and wrap up the case silently. And if the media still show interest in the issue, the team continues the probe but releases the results step by step to further test public reaction.

The probe teams use carefully worded phrases such as "initial investigation results" and "further investigation results" to keep deferring the time of the final report's release. But the public knows probe teams try to protect officials' interests through such tactics.

(China Daily July 17, 2009)