信息公开追责(xìnxī gōngkāi zhuīzé): Information disclosure accountability

Dong Haifeng, director of the bureau of commerce in Danzhou, South China's Hainan province, has become the first official nationwide to be held accountable for failing to fulfill his responsibility for information disclosure.

The official website of the bureau was found not to meet the required standards for an official government website during the third national inspection of official government websites as it had not been updated for a long time. It was the only government website in Hainan not to meet the required standards.

After the results of the inspection were released, the local Party's disciplinary committee dealt with the issue. The bureau's official website has been shut down and the relevant content has been transferred to the website of the Hainan provincial government.

Official government websites are a key part of modern governance, providing greater convenience to the public and enhancing the transparency of government. But many local officials ignore the need to update and maintain their websites, which then become so-called zombie websites.

Such a phenomenon shows local officials fail to pay enough attention to the importance of information disclosure and publicity work.

The General Office of the State Council, China's Cabinet, has reported hundreds of government websites for not meeting the required standards in recent years but little progress has been made. It is expected that local authorities will strictly implement an accountability system for information disclosure.