Rumors under the popular science banner are difficult to punish-
Experts call: it is time to revise the popular science law!
"To a certain extent, rumors are more terrible than viruses." During the two sessions of this year, Zhou Zhonghe, chairman of the China Science Writers Association and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that during the epidemic, many of the new media's spread and influence have been huge. The popular anti-epidemic science works have played an important role in guiding the public to respond scientifically to the epidemic situation and scientific life. At the same time, all kinds of pseudo-science rumors spread online, causing public panic, but no legal basis for accountability and law enforcement. "The Science and Technology Popularization Law (hereinafter referred to as the Science Popularization Law) has been in place for 18 years. The situation in the field of science popularization has changed dramatically. The emergence of a large number of professional science practitioners has also brought a series of new problems. It is time to revise the science popularization law. "
The new science mission calls for stronger legal protection
Since the implementation of the popular science law promulgated and implemented in 2002, the scientific quality of our citizens has increased from 1.4% in 2001 to 8.27% in 2018. The popular science law has played a historic role in steadily improving the scientific quality of citizens.
However, in the past 18 years, the Science Popularization Law has not been revised or implementation rules have been formulated. Under the new situation, a series of problems have been encountered, such as the funding of science popularization and the seriousness of the scientific and technological dissemination of Internet science and technology. .
Zhou Zhonghe told reporters that the latest statistics on science popularization show that China's per capita special science expenditure fell in 2018 year-on-year, and the growth momentum in recent years has continued to be weak. The corresponding science expenditure index has also shown a stagnation in growth. In many provinces, the investment in science popularization is far below the average level, which is not conducive to the sustainable development of the overall science work. "
"According to the existing science popularization law, it is impossible to hold local governments to fail to fulfill the gradual improvement and growth of science popularization funding responsibilities determined by the science popularization law." According to Chen Ling, director of the creation research office of the China Science Popularization Institute and secretary general of the China Science Popularization Writers Association Under the existing law, some provisions have long been "innocent". As a wing of innovation and development, if there is no corresponding legal protection, it is difficult for the new era science to truly play the same important role as technological innovation.
New technologies bring challenges to the popularization of law
With the rapid development of information network technology, the change of media form and the change of the public's habit of receiving information, new media represented by Weibo, WeChat, and short videos have become the main information circulation media, and naturally have also become the main channel for popular science information transmission.
With the increasing demand for emergency science, some online media have adopted the new technology of “picture and truth” in pursuit of click-through rate, and even to gain eye-catching “overnight fame”, under the banner of popular science, spreading some false content and untrue Information and even rumors, but they are not punished because of the lack of relevant legal provisions.
Zhou Zhonghe believes that since the implementation of the current science popularization law, various departments in the field of science popularization have had mutual constraints in terms of responsibilities and interests, which has led to the ineffectiveness of relevant policies in the implementation process.
Chen Ling concluded that based on the current rule of science in China, it is difficult to respond positively to the dramatic changes in rights and obligations brought about by the new forms of popular science, to actively respond to the blurring of the legal power and legal boundaries brought about by the new popular science phenomenon, and it is even more difficult to effectively solve the new popular science. Conflict of ideas and conflict of rights caused by disputes.
The new situation calls for strengthening the construction of the system of scientific rule of law
"In the past 20 years, China's society has developed and changed rapidly. More and more science and technology workers have participated in science popularization, and information dissemination is more comprehensive, immediate, and interactive." Zhou Zhonghe believes that the meaning and mechanism of science popularization The content and role are undergoing tremendous changes, and it is necessary to adapt the popular science rule of law system in time to respond to and regulate the law in a timely manner, combining it with the development trends of informatization, socialization, industrialization, and internationalization.
To this end, Zhou Zhonghe suggested in the proposal that the legal revision work should be started as soon as possible, and the construction of the popular science rule of law system should be considered while revising the law. For example, it is more conceptually people-oriented, safeguards and guarantees the public ’s right to participate in scientific affairs, the right to obtain popular science information, and enjoy the benefits of popular science development; from the content, it strengthens the connection of regulations and strengthens the perfection of popular science laws on local and departmental regulations, Standardize guidance; encourage the dissemination and popularization of scientific spirit, scientific thoughts and scientific methods from the connotation.
"At present, most of the public in our country is on the Internet, especially in the era of national self-media, where information on hot issues of social concern is miscellaneous. To avoid the spread of pseudoscience, it is essential to create a popular scientific media platform with social influence and immediate voice. "Chairman Duan Xuru, Dean of the Southwest Physics Research Institute of Nuclear Industry of China National Nuclear Corporation, suggested that members of the Association of Science and Technology, scientific research units and other media organizations should strengthen cooperation with media platforms to actively cultivate a number of authoritative and socially influential popular science media platforms. Especially for the hot issues of social concern, these scientific platforms actively disseminate relevant scientific knowledge in a timely manner to respond to the concerns of the masses. (Technology Daily Beijing, May 28th)