Chinese government officials will no longer be allowed to avoid commenting on emergencies under new legislative changes to give journalists better “legal protection”.

A commentary published Friday in Legal Weekly, a newspaper overseen by the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission — a Communist Party body with wide-ranging oversight powers over the legal system and security apparatus — said the changes to the Law on emergency response meant officials should not be evasive in response to media inquiries.

The law was passed by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in 2007 and was revised for the first time in June. The changes came into effect this month.

“Implementation of the (Amended) Emergency Response Act means government departments can no longer use ‘no comment’ to prevaricate when responding to media inquiries about emergencies,” the Legal Weekly commentary said.

“It certainly provides legal protection for news interviews and emergency reporting.”

The commentary highlighted Article 8 of the law, which states that government departments should “support the news media in public coverage and oversight” of official bodies and that news coverage of emergencies should be “current, accurate, objective and correct”.

It also emphasized the government’s duty to be prompt in releasing public alerts and other information about emergency responses.