3.
ARTICLE 19 and The Hong Kong Journalists Association
THE BILL OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
The Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance was enacted and came into effect on 8 June 1991, almost a year later than the Hong Kong government had originally proposed. An important and welcome legislative development, though politically highly vulnerable, the stated purpose of the Bill of Rights is to incorporate into the territory's domestic law the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) as applied to Hong Kong. The Covenant had been ratified by Britain in 1976 and extended to Hong Kong with a number of important reservations.1
Although there had been mounting pressure for such legislation before the events of June 19892 the Bill of Rights was a political response to profound post-massacre anxieties in the community that China would not observe its commitments to the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong people beyond 1997. A bill of rights, the government argued, would give effect in law to the ICCPR and form the cornerstone of human rights protection both during the remaining transition period and after 1997.
The Chinese government reacted to the proposal with suspicion and anger. It was quickly made clear that any such legislation may be amended or repealed after 1997 on the grounds that it would be inconsistent with the future SAR constitution. On its passage into law, despite having been substantially weakened to allow it to conform to the Basic Law, Beijing reiterated its opposition to the Bill by confirming that "it regrets [the Bill of Rights] and reserves the right to examine at an appropriate time after 1997 the laws currently in force in Hong Kong, including the Bill of Rights".
3.1
ARTICLE 16 ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
The new Bill of Rights Ordinance closely reproduces the provisions of the ICCPR, setting down the Covenant's Article 19 on freedom of expression word for word in its corresponding Article 16.3 It is no longer a residual freedom to be extrapolated from the common law, but
1
Much of this section is derived from three sources (each of which make essential further reading): Yash Ghai, "Freedom of Expression", in Raymond Wacks (ed.) Human Rights in Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1992); Countdown to 1997: Report of a Mission to Hong Kong, (Geneva: International Commission of Jurists, 1992); and Kevin Boyle, "The Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression", a paper given to the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Conference in June 1991 (and recently published in Yash Ghai and Johannes Chan (eds.), The Hong Kong Bill of Rights: A Comparative Approach (Butterworth, 1992)).
2
See Nihal Jayawickrama, "The Bill of Rights", in Human Rights in Hong Kong, id.
3
Article 16 reads:
(1) Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.
(2) Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or
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