Media should help consumers defend rights better

Many consumers cannot get justice for being cheated by businesses because it is both difficult and expensive to seek the shelter of the Law on the Protection of Consumers Rights and Interests. For one, the onus is on the consumer to gather evidence to prove that he/she has indeed been cheated by a particular company.

Of course, the media cannot play the role of the judiciary, but they can at least urge the legislature to make the law easier to apply.

Also, some outdated industrial standards and rules, as well as slack supervision not only favor State-owned enterprises, but also leave plenty of loopholes for foreign enterprises to use in order to lower their standards to "adapt to" the Chinese market.

Last year, an investigative reporter of a Shanghai-based TV station exposed that the US-based OSI Group LLC's unit in the city reprocessed expired food such as meat products and changed their expiry dates before supplying them to major fast food chains like KFC, McDonald's and Pizza Hut. In such cases, which are related to the health and well-being of the people, the media can pressure industry associations and quality supervision departments to fulfill their responsibilities to protect consumers and keep the market in order.

In other words, the media should defend public interests but not use them as an excuse to fulfill their own economic interests.

The author is a writer with China Daily. liyang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/21/2015 page8)