It’s one of those ordinary days. Typhoon Khanun (Jackfruit in Thai) passed by here in Shanghai last night but seems to be gone as construction workers outside are working again. It’s not the first as Matsa also paid a visit before.
Maybe all this wind and rain has cleared some minds.
China will no longer regard the death toll in natural disasters as a state secret, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday, as part of government efforts to improve transparency.
Whether this transparency will also be retrospectively be applied is not clear yet though
source: Reuters – China says disaster tolls no more a state secret
But is that the Chinese government’s fault, or just bad reporting? Or a combination of both? Friggin news agencies, they’ll print anything with the words “Press Release” across the top of it. If this was announced at a news conference, why didn’t the reporter ask that question? Or why didn’t they ask for an address or a contact number where death toll information could be requested?
Comment by Micah — September 12, 2005 @ 4:32 am