Media should also highlight poor consumption environment

To defend consumers' legal rights, Chinese media should not only point fingers at enterprises, but also the poor consumption environment, which is caused by ill supervision of government departments, says an article in Guangzhou Daily. Excerpts:

After the March 15 Consumers' Rights Day in China, some enterprises responded to media reports about their sub-quality products or problematic services.

It is quite difficult for one consumer to collect evidence and defend his or her rights. Only when the media presents many consumers' appeals together will enterprises start taking consumers' requirements seriously. That means there is still no developed channel or system to help individual consumers defend their legal rights.

The absence of such a system is an important contributor to the poor consumption environment. Salesmen and enterprises bully consumers with unfair items and regulations.

Market administration departments and commodity quality inspection authorities must take the blame because they fail to execute the laws. For example, China's dairy products have lost domestic consumers' trust since the melamine scandal exposed in 2008 by ill infants' parents.

Market and quality watchdogs said the melamine was not on their test list and the national food safety standards are lower than the developed countries in many fields.

In a low standard environment, international companies naturally lower their standards and services to maximize profits.

The media should pay more attention to the poor consumption environment. The media should also conduct more thorough and serious checks on advertisements. Were if not for the media, shoddy products would keep reaching consumers.