Why No Panic Following the Two Explosion in Beijing?

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 04, 2003

Why No Panic Following the Two Explosion in Beijing?

An article in the China Youth Daily stresses that authorities should publicize information as soon as and as much as possible when dealing with crises.

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An article in the China Youth Daily stresses that authorities should publicize information as soon as and as much as possible when dealing with crises.

The article cites the example of the two explosions over a week ago on the campuses of the two most prestigious Chinese universities, Tsinghua and Peking. According to experience elsewhere, panic could have been expected to follow the blasts, similar to the responses to the outbreak of the non-typical pneumonia in Guangzhou last month.

However, the students and teachers on the campuses continued to live a normal life, with no sign of panic or the spreading of wild rumors. This can be attributed to their high educational level and the sound management of the incidents by security officials.

But the article says the most important reason was the timely manner in which information about the incidents was publicized. The Xinhua News Agency immediately released this information after the explosions. Many other news outlets then followed suit. The website of Peking University also released news of the incident an hour later.

The article concludes that this transparency played the greatest role in stopping the spread of rumors and avoiding panic. (CRI News)

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