China Publishes Court Judgment on Net

Chinese courts have for the first time published verdicts on the Internet to shed their clandestine image.

The first 20 judgments were broadcast by the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate Court this week at a special website. All of the cases, including some bribery cases, have triggered public outcry.

A court spokesman said that the move is a follow-up to the new open trial practice, which aims at letting more ordinary people attend trials and watch the judicial system at work.

For a long time, court verdicts were kept off-the-record and only a small number of people had the right to go to trials. Chinese people have long complained that some secretly-made unjust charges were made in courts.

The spokesman said that the court's transparency should be increased, and ordinary people should be given the right to inquire about verdicts.

However, files containing a person's privacy, national secrets and confidential material of commercial companies are not allowed to be published.



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