Courts' micro blogs welcomed by Chinese public

Courts' microblogs have provided valuable lessons for Chinese, many of whom will never get chance to observe court proceedings in their lives.

According to a survey released by the China Youth Daily newspaper on Friday, nearly 70 percent of netizens are supportive of the Supreme People's Court's (SPC) registration of microblog accounts.

The 2013 Sina report on political and legal microblog accounts said 31 provincial higher courts have opened accounts on Twitter-like sina.com, China's leading social network, and more than 150 local intermediate courts have set up such accounts.

Henan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have the most accounts relating to courts.

Ke Yangzhi, the administrator of Henan provincial higher court's microblog, said that the account "yufayangguang," operated by an 11-person team, has helped many people understand how the court runs.

Since the start of 2012, the microblog accounts of 10 provincial higher courts have offered live coverage of 45 trial cases, moves that were welcomed by the public.

The most prominent case was the trial of Bo Xilai in August last year. The Jinan City Intermediate People's Court, which heard the case, posted the trial transcript, pictures and videos on its microblog account.

Bo, former secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and a former member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau, was sentenced to life imprisonment for bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.

On Wednesday, Guangxi's provincial higher court issued 48 posts on its microblog, "baguifayuan," to provide live coverage of the trial of a former policeman who was given a death sentence for shooting a pregnant woman dead, receiving more than 3,500 reposts and over 2,000 comments.

A netizen with the screen name "Sishuiliunian1242" wrote on sina.com that the SPC shoulders the functions of both pronouncing judgement and popularizing legal knowledge, and its microblog account is equivalent to judges visiting communities to spread legal knowledge.

He Bing, vice dean of the law school of China University of Political Science and Law, said that courts' accounts with social networks provide information to help people understand the daily work of a court, a process which helps reduce misunderstanding.

"Judicial transparency is a key step in judicial reform," said Zhu Lijia, professor with the Chinese Academy of Governance. "Online trial broadcasts and the issuance of judgment documents are both useful to introduce people to supervisory mechanisms," said Zhu.