Officials to be held responsible for failure to update websites

Website of a Chinese county-level government. [Photo/IC]

Most county-level and above governments in China have their own websites, but many of them have become "zombies' that are never updated. These zombie sites will hopefully disappear after the State Council announced on Tuesday that it will launch a general survey of government websites nationwide, and those that fail to update regularly will be removed. Comments:

Worse than zombies are the kind of government websites that update regularly without providing any useful information; all they do is to boast of the "good performance" of officials and require citizens to be obedient. The government websites that fail to provide useful information should also be removed. Government websites should serve the public, instead of officials.

China Youth Daily, March 26

Before 2006, it was popular for every government to launch a website; after that year, with most governments having websites, the task was how to regulate them to ensure they provided useful information. The survey is a step in the right direction toward better governance.

Zhang Shaotong, deputy director of China Software Test Center, March 26

Some of the local governments fail to update their websites because they lack professional personnel, and a mere survey won't get to the root of the problem. What is needed is a system that requires local governments to recruit the necessary personnel to keep their sites updated and includes the running costs of websites in budgets, so as to ensure sustainable development.

Beijing News, March 26

Leading local officials always have excuses for failing to update government websites, such as technical problems or a lack of funds. Actually, it is the lack of punitive measures that has allowed them to ignore their websites. Local officials that are failing in their duties by allowing government websites to become zombies should be held responsible for that.

xinhuanet.com, March 25