Once again, the aftermath of the massive explosion at a petrochemical plant in Jilin city has shown that the public's right to know is non-existent on the mainland, where officials are still driven by a 'we-know-best' attitude. While ordinary citizens can be held liable for spreading false news, the powers that be have a licence to lie to protect their own interests. For days after the explosion at the plant operated by the Jilin Petroleum and Chemical Company on November 13, the company maintained that no poisonous substances had spilled into the Songhua River. The local authorities also conspired to hide the truth from the people. As late as Wednesday morning, 10 days after the explosion, the environmental protection bureau in Jilin province reported that the amounts of chemical substances in the river's water were within safety limits. That was a day after the municipal government of Harbin , the capital of Heilongjiang province , 370km downstream from Jilin city, admitted that its water supply would have to be turned off for four days from Wednesday, as water contaminated by the explosion was due to pass through. On Wednesday afternoon, in a telephone interview with the Hong Kong media, a spokesman for the Jilin chemical company continued to repeat the lie that the explosion had caused no poisonous leakage. All that whitewashing by the Jilin authorities stopped only after they learned that the State Environmental Protection Administration (Sepa) in Beijing had broken its silence to announce that the explosion had caused serious pollution. Jilin provincial officials have since travelled to Harbin to offer their apologies. But one wonders if they might be quietly cursing their Heilongjiang counterparts, for exposing the conspiracy to hush up the effects of the explosion. Indeed, if the Songhua was a shorter river that terminated inside Jilin province, their lie might have remained uncovered. Songyuan, the last city on the Songhua in Jilin province, suspended its water supply for four days last week, ostensibly for maintenance, without any hiccups. In fact, the outside world hardly knew about the suspension in Songyuan, until the people of Harbin challenged their city government to disclose the real reasons behind the decision to turn off the taps. Even though the truth has finally come out, it is disappointing to hear Sepa vice-director Zhang Lijun condoning the way in which the Jilin authorities handled the matter. 'There are many ways of releasing information ... What the Jilin government did was feasible and OK,' he said. Mr Zhang has apparently turned a blind eye to the law. Under section 31 of the mainland's Environmental Protection Ordinance, units responsible for causing a pollution emergency must inform other units and residents who are likely to be affected by the pollution. By insisting that there was no harmful leakage into the Songhua, the Jilin company has manifestly breached the law by disseminating false information. So has the Jilin government, for failing to expose the company's lie and playing a duplicitous role in hiding the truth. If Mr Zhang's remarks reflected Beijing's position, then it has sent a very negative message to local authorities: it suggests that trying to play down or hush up an emergency to prevent causing alarm among the people is pardonable. Such a position is not going to inspire local and international confidence in the mainland's handling of other public-health risks such as bird flu, which demands speedy action to stop its spread. C.K. Lau is the Post's executive editor, policy
