AM-HONGKONG
BRITAIN REFUSES TO INTERVENE IN HONG KONG PRESS LAW DISPUTE
By James Forrester, Reuters
LONDON, April 3, Reuter - Britain refused today to intervene to quash a new law in Hong Kong which the local media say could be used to stifle any criticism of the government of the colony, which reverts to China in 1997.
The Foreign Office said Tim Renton, the minister responsible for Hong Kong, affairs, had informed Jim Biddulph, president of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong, that he saw no need for British intervention.
I am not convinced there is a case for intervention by the British government," Renton said.
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Renton told Biddulp that Britain had not interfered in the colony's legislation since the early 1900s and saw no reason to interfere now.
Biddulph had been sent to London by the club to express concern that last-minute changes in the legislation could prevent the foreign media in Hong Kong from carrying out their job. Local media have lodged similar complaints in London.
The new law, passed by the Hong Kong. Legislative Council on March 11, makes it an offence punishable by a fine of up to 100,000 Hong Kong dollars (14,000 U.S.) and two years imprisonment for anyone to publish "false news which is likely to cause alarm to the public or a section thereof or disturb public order".
Biddulph told the minister correspondents were concerned that an amendment introduced six days before the law was debated dropped a reference to malicious publication and to newspapers.
The media in Hong Kong fear the law could be used to inhibit reporting items the government wished to conceal and stifle a press that the government boasted was the freest in Asia.
The Foreign Office said Renton was confident that the freedom of the press in Hong Kong would be maintained. He saw the amendment to the original law as a ""considerable liberalisation”1
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He denied that there had been any pressure brought to bear by China. ""We had no representations from the Chinese whatsoever ** he said.
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REUTER
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