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there be that political censorship will not in the future be extended to cover television, theatre, as well as the printed media.? Sir, we must guard against starting a bad precedent which may well be followed in a few years to come. If one freedom is lost today, no other freedom is safe in the future and in this
respect, I refer to a letter to the Editor of the South China
Morning Post, published today by Dr. Jayawickrama, otherwise affectionately known to his law students as Dr J., a law lecturer of the University of Hong Kong. In his letter he refers to the
administration's reliance on the fact that a similar restriction
exists in other countries. One of these countries is Sri Lanka.
Dr. J says: [Reads]
"It is interesting to note that Sri Lanka has progressed beyond the stage of political censorship of films.
Apart from the fact that the major national newspaper group is by law under government control and pre-publication censorship of news and comment is commonplace, it is now a criminal offence in that country, punishable with imprisonment, to make a statement which is defamatory in nature concerning the conduct of a member of parliament, or which brings the president into contempt, or which attempts to excite feelings of disaffection for the Government. The snowballing Sri Lanka experience, with which I can claim a special familiarity should alert Hong Kong's legislators to the dangers inherent in the proposal to take the seemingly innocuous first step of legitimising political censorship of one medium of expression."
Dr. J ought to know. He hails from Sri Lanka, indeed he was once
Acting the Attorney General of Sri Lanka in 1970 and from 1970 to 1977 he was the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, in Sri
Lanka. Please let us take heed and learn from the example of
Sri Lanka.
I now move on to another topic, Sir.
Incompatibility of
the "good relations" clause with Article 19 of the international covenant for civil and political rights. It is for the administration to show that the "good relations" clause is necessary before it can be allowed to exist as an exception to the freedom of expression under the said Article 19 and in this respect I must emphasise
that the general rule is the protection of the freedom and that is, restrictions are only exceptions. The restrictions therefore
may not be applied in a way that completely suppresses the freedom.