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Regulating Internet News Transmission, Promoting Internet's Sound Development
According to our correspondent Ren Jianmin's November 8 report, the Provisional Regulations on Governance of Internet-based News Providers jointly published by the State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Information Industry on November 6 has evoked great repercussions among the internet circle. People of this circle indicate that publication of this set of Regulations will function to guarantee the sound development of the work of China's internet news transmission.
Responsible members of well-known domestic websites indicate that the publication of the Provisional Regulations is highly timely and necessary.
He Jiazheng, responsible leader of people. com. cn, said the most fundamental point of the published set of Regulations is that it strengthens management of the source of online news, and this practice suits China's current national condition. As everybody knows, the management of China's traditional media is regulated, which has played the role of giving correct guidance to public opinion in social life. However, because internet is a new thing, there have emerged some undesirable things in internet news transmission, a case in point is false news and hearsay. As a result, some people have come to the misunderstanding that they need not be responsible to the information transmitted in the internet. This situation, if not changed, will tarnish the reputation of the entire internet media.
Non-standardized online news is a problem existing not only in China, but also in various other countries around the world. This set of Regulations, in fact, represents a useful exploration made by the government for ways to govern the internet, a completely new medium form. He Jiazheng pledges that people. com. cn will strictly abide by this set of Regulations, and re-perform all necessary formalities as soon as possible. At the same time, people. Com. cn welcomes other websites to cooperate with it in line with the stipulations of these Regulations, so as to jointly promote the development of the entire internet journalistic undertaking.
In the opinion of Zhou Xisheng, president of Xinhuanet. Com, publication of this set of Regulations is highly timely and necessary for stopping various online rumors and promoting the sound development of internet. In releasing news items, some websites do not note the source of the news and thus infringe the copyrights of other websites and harm the interests of netizens. He also maintains that this set of Regulations is strongly operational, because, under the Regulations, although the source of online news is reduced, websites' information is not obtained from only one or two sources. As a responsible member of a website, he said with deep feeling that the Regulations have also lightened the load of internet workers, because they need not worry about the truthfulness of the news they use.
Wang Zhidong, chief executive of Sina. com. cn, is not taken by surprise about the content of this set of Regulations, he said for more than one year he has been keeping in touch with the State Council Information Office, the Ministry of Information Industry and other departments, and he had earlier been aware of the essence of these Regulations. "In fact, over the past year Sina has constantly adjusted itself in the spirit of this document," said Wang. Speaking from the angle of the company, they have consistently hoped its operation can be legalized and standardized. Their investors are also of the view that before the promulgation of these Regulations, laws and regulations regarding China's internet were still in an obscure stage and so they were always worried that policies would suddenly change. Now that regulations have been clearly laid down, and everybody feels relieved. Wang Zhidong indicated that Sina com. cn would re-perform all necessary formalities in accordance with the Regulations and would make adjustments to the details needed to be carried out concretely.
Wang Juntao, board chairman of 8848 Company, is of the opinion that promulgation of this set of Regulations is very timely and is of great benefit to standardizing the management of internet. He said providing news is not the main task of his company, and he hoped that things transmitted on line could be standard, truthful and reliable. Therefore, he said, these Regulations will not influence the operation of 8848 Company, on the contrary, they will greatly boost its operation, because this will reinforce netizens' confidence in the online information, e-commerce website, of course, hope that the commodity information and comments they provide can receive more confidence.
(This report is published on Page 5 of People's Daily, November 9, 2000)
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