- 15
during a public debate,
or by somebody standing on a soap box
in Victoria Park.
It is therefore clear that this Bill does not simply
newspapers as it did originally in section 6
Publication Consolidation Ordinance but it
affect the local
of the Control of
will clearly affect the community at large.
It is regrettable that the Administration does not
seem to have appreciated this or else it would not have gone
into the second reading of this Bill without having the widest
possible public consultation.
to the
Let us now turn to the rationale behind this series
amendment to our press law. The reason proffered by the
Administration is in effect that of redundancy.
And although the Chief Secretary did not make any
reference to this in his speech in moving the second reading of
control of Publication Consolidation (Amendment) Bill 1986, we
know that these suppression provisions were
principally in order to
published or imported
Joint Declaration on
between the People's
enacted in 1951
control pro-communist
newspapers
into Hong Kong. With the signing of the
19th December 1984, the
relationship
Republic of Hong Kong and Great Britain