Media passages show two sessions are becoming increasingly open

ON SATURDAY, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, the nation's top political advisory body, commenced its annual session, and on Monday, the National People's Congress, the nation's top legislature, begins its plenary session. This year, there are passages where NPC deputies and CPPCC National Committee members can be interviewed by the media before they enter the conference halls. Beijing News comments:

Every year, journalists have a lot of questions to ask the legislators and political advisers. However, they have to discuss, vote or raise their opinions to the leadership, so they have little time for the media, and journalists often find it hard to conduct interviews with them.

This is also true for ministers who attend the two sessions. Yet the problem has been solved creatively: A passageway has been created in front of the media that's about 100 meters long, along which ministers accept interviews. Since 2008, the two sessions news center has installed microphones along the passageway where journalists can do group interviews with each minister for about 5 to 10 minutes. That's the so-called "ministers' media passage".