Restore judicial credibility

The Shanghai people's high court has launched a special investigation into a video clip posted online, which alleges that a group of officials of the court were part of a prostitution racket run at a luxury resort in the city's Pudong New Area, and promised to deal with the matter seriously and strictly according to the law. Online exposure of officials' misconducts or involvement in corruption should be taken seriously, instead of being suppressed in order to add vitality to the Party's and the government's anti-corruption campaign, says an article in Beijing Times. Excerpts:

After an anonymous blogger posted part of a surveillance footage on the Internet showing officials patronizing alleged prostitutes at Hengshan Resort in Shanghai's Pudong New Area, the Shanghai disciplinary authorities responded immediately. They suspended the four senior Shanghai judges (purportedly seen in the footage) from their posts and said they were being investigated for their alleged involvement in the prostitution racket.

The scandal involving senior judges has dealt a major blow to the credibility of the country's judiciary. Regardless of whether the video is genuine or doctored, the first step that the authorities should take is to order a thorough investigation into the incident - which they have already done - to restore judicial credibility.

Public trust in the judiciary depends on fair trials of each and every case. A thorough investigation into the sexual scandal in which judicial officials are suspected to be involved and timely publication of the results is part of this process. Compared with upholding fairness and justice in an individual case, the credibility and impartiality of judges is a crucial factor to ensure judiciary credibility.

If the judges are indeed guilty of hiring prostitutes, people have enough reason to question their credibility and impartiality in the cases they presided over.

The blogger who posted the clip said he began "investigating" the behavior of Zhao Minghua, deputy chief judge of the Shanghai high people's court's No. 1 civil tribunal, after suspecting that he had "improperly intervened" in a civil lawsuit. The blogger, who was involved with the case in 2009, became suspicious of Zhao's action after he learned that the judge might be a relative of the plaintiff. The judicial investigators should also look into this angle.

Judicial justice is an integral and very important part of the social justice system, and judges play a core role in it. So it is extremely important to ensure that judges are scrupulous and impartial in their verdicts.

Judicial corruption should be rooted out by exposing the black sheep, for which disciplinary authorities have to act tough. Also, public supervision in such cases will help in consolidating people's trust in the judiciary.

That's why online exposure of officials' misconducts and corruption should never be suppressed. Instead, they should be investigated into to add sting to the country's fight against corruption.

(China Daily USA 08/07/2013 page12)