Freedom of official speech(3)

Improvements needed

By October, verified government affairs Weibo on Sina numbered 60,000, an over 200 percent increase rate from the previous year.

Weibo users stood at over 320 million in September, according to the China Weibo 2012 blue paper, accounting for over half of the country's netizens.

For government Weibo accounts, the number of followers is not everything and other aspects of the microblog world are challenging. For example, many government departments register accounts because they are following a trend. But this does not mean they have any idea how to use the platform to communicate, Lü Benfu, an Internet expert at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Global Times. This has led to the existence of many "corpse" Weibo accounts.

Several important departments seem to treat Weibo in a very carefree manner. The department of civil affairs in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, only posted once in six months. Following public pressure and media complaints, the department apologized in November and promised to update it more regularly.

After it was exposed on October 8 that Cai Bin, head with a city management bureau in Guangzhou had 21 houses, Web users began posting proof on the Weibo of the Guangzhou discipline inspection commission. The accusations were proven true a couple of days later, according to Workers' Daily.

An investigation on October 13 found that the education bureau of Nanchang, Jiangxi Province had only posted 23 pieces of information this year, despite having 37,000 followers.

The government of Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, seems to be particularly light on Weibo updates after reporters from News Express found 30 corpse accounts belonging to the city's departments.

However, the definition of corpse accounts may be slightly too rigid since a Weibo account can be classified as a corpse if it does not post for two consecutive work days, according to Zhang Zhi'an, a communications professor from Sun Yat-Sen University.

Given the rapid growth of government Weibo accounts, Lü said some steps should be adhered to. "Departments related to people's livelihoods or those providing people with the chance to be a part of the decision-making process should register accounts first, along with public security departments," he said.