Urgent Business: Hong Kong, Freedom of Expression and 1997
The Public Order Ordinance continues to retain provisions which permit the executive authorities (the Governor in Council and his delegate, the Commissioner of Police) wide discretionary powers to license and prohibit public gatherings and processions. The controversial Ordinance was enacted in 1967 and made many of the emergency measures on assembly, created during the riots of that year, part of permanent legislation. As a law many regard to be an infringement of the right to freedom of assembly, an integral component of freedom of expression, it is now under review by the government following pressure to assess its compatibility with the Bill of Rights.
Finally, the provision in the Defamation Ordinance which continues to retain libel as a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment, should be deleted.
4.11
CENSORSHIP NOW
In the unstable aftermath of the Beijing massacre in June 1989, particularly during the first
year
of tense bilateral relations between Britain and China, there were several occasions when the executive authorities invoked their legal powers to variously suppress, threaten or endanger freedom of expression. The common background to all these incidents has been the expression or potential for expression of views perceived as being antagonistic to the Beijing leadership.
These censorship cases underline the need for legislative reform, not only because of the threat such legislation poses after 1997, but also to remove the potential threat they pose to freedom of expression now either through their use by the authorities or their tendency to encourage self-censorship."
4.11.1 The seizure of tapes
On 29 September 1989, armed police attempted to prevent about 40 members of the April 5th Action Group, a coalition of the radical left, from marching to the entrance of the World Trade Centre in Causeway Bay where Xinhua News Agency director Xu Jiatun was hosting a reception prior to China's National Day. April 5th members were to join a large demonstration of students and others already gathered there in protest against the Beijing massacre. The police action, which turned violent, resulted in the arrest of four April 5th members for allegedly assaulting police officers.
Four days later, on 3 October, the police seized several video tapes from the territory's two television stations, TVB and ATV, after obtaining a warrant from a magistrate under section 50 (7) of the Police Force Ordinance. This followed several unsuccessful requests from the Police Public Relations Bureau to the two stations for the release of "raw" video footage of
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See also Chapter 5, section 5.5.
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