។
Objects and Reasons.
1. Section 13 of the Printers and Publishers Ordinance, 1886 (No. 4 of 1886) required that the printer or publisher of every newspaper should enter into a bond, conditioned for the payment of any fine or penalty imposed on any conviction for libel, and further conditioned for the payment of any damages and costs in any action for libel published in the newspaper.
2. The 1886 Ordinance was repealed and replaced by the Printers and Publishers Ordinance, 1927 (No. 25 of 1927) which however did not reproduce the provisions of section 13 of the repealed Ordinance or any equivalent therefor, with the result (see Hong Kong Hansard for 1929 p. 316) that a number of irresponsible newspapers with libellous and black- mailing tendencies appeared, disappearing again upon the sign of any trouble.
3. Consequently by Ordinance No. 1 of 1930 (since amended by Ordinance No. 3 of 1933) a new section 4A was introduced into the 1927 Ordinance requiring a deposit of $3,000 unless the Registrar was prepared to accept a bond in lieu thereof.
4. Since then bonds have usually been accepted but, with the daily ebb and flow of population across the Colony's borders, such bonds are difficult to enforce especially in the cases in which it is most necessary to enforce them.
5. The Object of this Bill is to enable the Registrar in his discretion to demand a deposit even where a bond has been previously accepted.
May, 1937.
C. G. ALABASTER,
Attorney General.
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