Government and Policy
China narrows definition of 'state secrets'
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-30 17:13
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Internet leaks
The rapid development of the Internet poses great challenges to the protection of state secrets, with Internet leaks of confidential information frequently occurring, observers say.
The amended law requires Internet operators and other public information network service providers to cooperate with public and state security departments and prosecutors in probes of state secret leaks.
Prof. Wang said, "Such stipulations are necessary," as fast information transmission can easily cause leaks of state secrets and many countries have similar requirements on network operators.
"If a sensitive photo is put online, people see it and they may obtain state secrets from it. That's very simple. But people cannot judge whether it is a state secret or not. They may take for granted the information has already been released by the government," he said.
"Information transmissions must be immediately stopped if they are found to contain state secrets, and once a leak has been discovered, records should be kept and it must be reported to the public security and state security departments in charge of confidentiality.
"The information relating to state secrets should be removed according to orders of relative departments," the amendment says.
Wang said efforts must be made to ensure such clauses are not abused by authorities to invade citizens' privacy.
He added more specific measures should be enacted to implement the rules.
"It should be carried out without harming the openness of the Internet," he said.
