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All over the free
world,
readily
available commodity
newspapers are the most
and also the most reliable
indicator as to whether freedom lives in a particular country;
They either tell
for there can be no pretence in newspapers.
readers only what the state wants them to know or they also
tell the readers what the people think of their government.
The freedom of the press is thus the most important
of all freedoms because without it no other freedom can exist,
government can act arbitrarily without its people even
and a
knowing about it.
In relation to this series of amendments proposed by
the Administration, I believe the motive behind it is generally
But unfortunately the Administration has
a commendable one.
not gone
far enough, because although the original section 6 of
the Control of Publication Consolidation Ordinance is to be
Amendment Bill 1986.
repealed, the same section was re-introduced word for word as
section 27 of the Public Order
As the
Bill now stands, the section only strikes at "any person who
maliciously publishes in any local newspaper false news which
is likely to alarm public opinion or disturb public order".
But in the Administration's proposed amendment, and indeed in
mine, it strikes at "any person who publishes any false news
The deletion of the phrase "in any local newspaper" is
the
•
result
of representations made to the Ad Hoc group that the