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ISD press releases
The following is a question by the Hon Ho Mun-ka, Michael and a written reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday).
Question:
Regarding the unfounded press release issued by the Information Services Department on January 21 this year concerning the Hospital Authority, will the Government inform this Council of
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
the ranking of officers in the Information Services Department who are usually responsible for issuing "press releases" and "service items";
how the mechanism monitoring the dissemination of information by the Information Services Department operates;
whether, in order to avoid mistakes and omissions during the process of information dissemination which could cause public alarm, the Information Services Department has arranged for reports on certain sensitive or important events or news to be examined by higher ranking officers before their release; and
whether it has investigated the above-mentioned incident; if so, when and in what ways the investigation results will be published?
Reply
Mr President,
A press release was issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority through the facsimile network of the Information Services Department on January 21, 1997. announcing the death of a member of the Hospital Authority Board. The release reached the media accurately and in good time.
To facilitate the work of the media, the department sends out at the end of each day an index through its computer network listing the headings of press releases issued earlier so that editors can confirm if all items have been received. A mistake was made in the index of January 21, 1997 with regard to the heading of the press release in question. Subsequently, a correction was made over the same network and a letter of apology was sent to the Chairman of the Hospital Authority.