(Photo: Shouhu)

The government of South China's Hainan Province is expected to establish a media supervision team that will welcome and support the work of reporters, accept the watchdog role of media, and advise the government on how to better implement policies based on media reports.

The team will work with the media, allowing its watchdog work to become the authorities' "eyes" and "ears," by supporting and analyzing negative reports and public opinion analysis. 

Governments at all levels in the province should welcome, support and protect the media's watchdog role, Shen Xiaoming, governor of Hainan, said during a media symposium on Saturday, according to Hainan Daily's WeChat account. 

"Governments and media are friends and partners," Shen was quoted as saying. 

The Hainan Daily's report did not elaborate on work of the team.

Supervision by the media should target problems and weak parts in government and offer constructive solutions based on public interest, and media should adopt various methods to supervise the government including negative reports, Shen said. 

Shen also called for an improvement in regulations on governments accepting the media's watchdog function, and for the establishment of a platform for governments to accept advice. 

Wang Hongwei, a professor at China's Renmin University's School of Public Administration and Policy, hailed the Hainan government's move, and said supervision by the media is significant for China at this stage of deepening reforms. 

"Supervision by the media links the public with governments, and it could help to adjust government policies and discover the absence of needed policies and problems with polices in a timely way," Wang told the Global Times. 

He said some local governments in China obstruct normal media operations, and local authorities even abuse journalists. 

The media's watchdog role will become prominent as more conflicts and problems emerge with the rapid transition of China's economy and society, and all of society should correctly understand supervision by the media, the Beijing Daily reported.