THE MINISTRY of Civil Affairs has disclosed in three batches the names of more than 200 illegal social organizations this month. Beijing News comments:

To make themselves more trustworthy, these social organizations always indicate that they are affiliated to government departments or other public institutes. Some even try to portray themselves as official ones through their names.

Sometimes it is not easy to tell the difference between the genuine and the fake ones simply from their names. For instance, the China Association for Product Quality is an illegal organization that might be mistaken for the official China Association for Quality.

The authorities have cracked down on the illegal social organizations by putting them on a blacklist since 2015, but obviously it has not been enough to put an end to them, since once blacklisted the organizations simply change their names and carry on as before.

The public security and commercial administrative departments should not sit idle, but take joint actions with the civil affairs departments to root out the people behind these illegal organizations.

Otherwise, the blacklist will only be a cat-and-mouse word game.

Also the media are obliged to double check the background information of social organizations while covering news involving them or carrying their advertisements, as they attach great importance to enhancing their credibility through media exposure. And people buy it, believing that the organizations frequently appearing on the media must be as trustworthy as the media itself.