Minister Wang Chen of the State Council Information Office made a sensible point on Wednesday when he said spokespersons of government and Communist Party of China offices should be true to their name and be practical channels for communication and interaction with the public.

Thanks to the strenuous push from his institution, most Party and government offices at or above the provincial level now have a spokesperson in place. And, many offices have launched their own micro blogs, some of which have attracted massive followings.

This has been a positive change from the previous tendency toward secrecy and reluctance to share information, and is consistent with the government's commitment to transparency.

As Wang reiterated at the routine annual briefing, it is a practical move to satisfy people's right to know, participate, express, and supervise.

But as Wang conceded, the situation still remains less than satisfactory. Spokespersons' frequent failures to properly address inquiries about matters of significant public concern have raised suspicions about the real enthusiasm for transparency.

However, Wang attributed this to some spokespersons' inability and unwillingness to deal with sensitive topics, and vowed to solve the problem through better training.

But while such training may be of great help to would-be spokespersons, it should emphasize answering questions as honestly as possible rather than teaching hide-and-seek techniques.

The Ministry of Railways' awkward and heavily criticized handling of information following the fatal July 23 bullet train accident is a good example of how poorly released information can result in a public relations disaster.

Public anger was directed at the ministry not just because its spokesperson provided information that was later confirmed untrue, but also because the ministry was perceived to be trying to muddy the waters.

In many cases though, ignorance rather than dishonesty appears to be a more common cause of a spokesperson's failure to come up with acceptable answers. In some cases, they have proved to be genuinely unaware of what has happened.

This cannot but lead people to wonder why some spokespersons have been installed if they too are being kept in the dark. This in turn raises doubts about the sincerity of the claims of allegiance to transparency.

Ill-informed spokespersons expose a worrisome lack of internal communication within and across institutions, which is indispensable for true transparency.

(China Daily 01/19/2012 page8)