SOCIETY OF JOURNALISM & COMMUNICATION
THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
香港中文大學新聞傳播學系系會
3
With the presence of the Article 27, we are afraid that reporting,
political news in particular, may become dim and bureaucratic.
mean publishing mainly government press releases.
It would
(5) Freedom of the press is fundamental to other freedoms. It
plays an active role in Hong Kong's prosperity by providing an
unfettered flow of information and varied opinions on the issues of the
day. We fear that this clause will be another blow to the delicate
confidence of the Hong Kong people.
(6) The Government's good intention (as it has claimed) and past
record do not mean that the people must give it a more powerful law.
Laws should be enacted because they are reasonable and needed.
Furthermore, their ambits should be no wider than are acceptable. There
is no guarantee that the amended Article 27, if left in the hands of
authoritarian government, will not be stretched to its limits. The
similarity between the new clause and the Emergency Regulations may lead
one to speculate whether the administration is intending to revive the
emergency rules under normal conditions in a different guise.
(7) We are discontended with the Government's refusal to postpone
the second and third readings. By deleting 'maliciously' and 'any local
newspaper', the amended version has moved away from its original
proposal. In doing So, it has been extended to include all the Hong
Kong people.
Yet,
there were only six days for us to chew it over. If
it is really a measure of 'last resort', we wonder why the Government
insisted on pushing it through.
(8) We believe that anything concerning 'public interest' should be
decided by the public after mature public discussion, and only by the
Councillors who can really represent the public.
THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
SHATIN, N.T. HONG KONG.
TEL: 0-614642-3