Continuous improvement in judicial transparency continues to be an important element of China's judicial reform, said a senior official with the Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Friday.
"China has been leading the world as far as judicial openness is concerned, in terms of either the scope and forms or the depth and breadth of judicial openness," said Shen Liang, vice president of the SPC, while taking up a foreign journalist's question at a press conference.
For instance, Shen said China has made public not only court proceedings and judgments, but also trial procedures and the execution of effective judgments; not only the final verdict but also the reasons for the verdict.
The aforementioned information is accessible not only to the parties and participants in the proceedings, but also to the public.
Judicial information is made public not only through media outlets, official websites, white papers, press conferences but also via 12368 service lines and relevant WeChat and Weibo accounts.
China has established four major platforms to release information on trial procedures, court hearings, written judgments, and execution of judgments.
Members of the public can opt for either traditional ways, like observing court trials, and checking websites and newspapers, or simply using a smartphone, to access judicial information, Shen said.
"Still, China will not stop its efforts to further promote judicial openness," he added.
Friday's press event focused on China's reform efforts and achievements in the judicial, procuratorial, and public security domains over the past decade.
Except in special circumstances as prescribed by the Chinese law, all cases in the people's courts shall be tried in public, Shen said, noting that exceptions are made for cases involving state secrets, personal privacy or minors. For cases involving trade secrets, the parties concerned can request a private trial.
This is the common practice globally and there's nothing special with China, he added.
