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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL — 18 May 1988
for the protection of national security or public order or ordre public or of public health or morals.
Sir, I shall therefore in due course be moving an amendment by the addition of clause 10(4A), which now appears on a paper circulated to Members and I will give my detailed reasons then.
Sir, with respect to the constitution of the board of review, I would respectfully urge the Administration to seriously consider allowing a High Court Judge or a District Judge to chair the board of review whenever the ground of complaint relates to clause 10(2)(c), that is, in relation to political censorship; because it is quite likely that authorities will be cited to the tribunal based on decisions in the European of Human Rights; and it would require a chairman with good experience in law to fully appreciate these submissions.
Sir, may I remind hon. Members of the provision of article 2 of the Inter- national Convenant on Civil and Political Rights. Paragraph 3 reads: 'Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes:
(a) to ensure that any person whose rights or freedoms as herein recognised
are violated shall have an effective remedy, . . . and
(b) to ensure that any person claiming such a remedy shall have his right thereto determined by competent judicial, administrative or legislative authorities,... and to develop the possibilities of judicial remedy.'
Sir, the mose effective judicial remedy available under the scheme proposed in this Bill is to ensure that the board of review will be chaired by a judge. So, for these reasons, I will not oppose this Bill including clause 10(2)(c), but I shall, in due course, move my amendment.
MR. DESMOND LEE: Sir, as the ad hoc group to study film classification and censorship held so many meetings (37 to be exact), including consultation with the Administration and the industry, most of the issues have been resolved. I shall speak only on the 'damage good relations' clause and the reference to article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which deals with the principle of freedom of expression.
There is specific mention of this international covenant in the Joint Declaration on the future of Hong Kong. It is, therefore, the common intention of both Britain and China that the people of the future Hong Kong Special Administrative Region should enjoy the privileges and rights which are provided by this covenant. For this reason, if the 'damage good relations' clause is to be included, the legislation must contain sufficient safeguard that the commitment to compliance of this covenant will be honoured. The safeguard must be spelt out in unequivocal terms which leave as little room as possible for different interpretations. The intention behind the Joint Declaration can be realised only in this way. There are two formulations of this Bill arising from the international covenant, namely the 'taking into account' version and the