Timely, accurate dissemination of news wins praise

A panel of government officials and scholars on Saturday lauded the role played by the news spokesperson system and the news release work in building social consensus, managing public emergencies and burnishing China's global image since 2012.

Over the period, the government's news release events have been held at multiple levels and at high frequency and served the country's development well, Sun Yeli, director of the State Council Information Office, said while addressing The Third China Spokesperson Forum.

Information that is of "people's utmost concern" has been disseminated through such events, which helped government win recognition, understanding and support from the public, he said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the timely and accurate release and explanation of epidemic control policies, and disease prevention expertise, among others, have helped strengthen people's confidence and assuage panic, Sun told the forum held by the administration alongside Tsinghua University.

As part of the news release work, the Chinese government also invited reporters working for overseas news outlets to attend official news conferences, providing convenience for them to do interviews, Sun said.

"News conferences have become an important platform to present to the world China's wisdom, proposals and solutions," he added.

Addressing the forum, Peng Gang, a vice-president of Tsinghua University, which was among the first higher learning institutions that participated in nurturing the news spokesperson system about four decades ago, said the course of news release has made "significant progress" after the country adopted market-oriented reforms in the late 1970s and advanced the work of socialist modernization.

"Since the CPC's 18th National Congress in 2012, the work has accelerated, and played a crucial role in modernizing social governance, telling China's development stories to the world, and presenting the country's image to the global audience," he said.

Zhao Chenxin, deputy director and spokesman for the National Development and Reform Commission, told the forum that the news release work must constantly innovate discourse system.

"Spokespersons shall be good at speaking plain and understandable language that common people can relate to," he said.

Zhao noted that such work must adhere to a problem-oriented approach. Official news release needs to focus on problems facing the public, and share difficulties and efforts made as authorities work to solve them, so as to "gain understanding and support of the masses to the greatest extent possible," he said.

The State Council Information Office held the first and second China Spokesperson Forum in 2016 in Shanghai and in 2018 in Beijing.