XN000022-1995-06-23 — Page 10

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Under section 50(7) of the Police Force Ordinance, a magistrate may issue a warrant to a police officer if the magistrate is satisfied there is reasonable cause to suspect that there is in any place any document which is likely to be of value to the investigation of any offence.

The spokesman pointed out that the Governor, in his 1994 Policy Address, undertook to take action to amend certain provisions which imposed legal restrictions on press freedom by the end of this legislative session, and that section 50(7) of the Police Force Ordinance was one of these provisions.

He said that, in addition to the Police Force Ordinance, there were 108 other pieces of legislation which contained similar provisions.

"Rather than simply amend the Police Force Ordinance, as we had been asked, we decided to amend the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance, so as to deal with all of the legislation at the same time," the spokesman said.

He said the Bill proposed amendments to restrict the statutory powers to enter premises for the purpose of searching for, or seizing, journalistic material.

"This general restriction applies not only to the police, but also to other law enforcement agencies and government departments," he said.

The Bill will specify that an officer has to apply for a warrant before he can be authorised to enter premises to search for or seize journalistic material.

Such an application has to be approved personally by a directorate disciplined officer specified in the Bill before it can be made to a District Court or High Court judge.

The spokesman said the judge would have to be satisfied that a number of conditions were met before a warrant could be issued.

The conditions include: an arrestable offence has been committed; the journalistic material to be searched for is likely to be of substantial value to the investigation or relevant in the proceedings for the offence; other methods of obtaining the material may compromise the investigation; and it is in the public interest that a warrant should be granted.

He stressed that the amendments would not impair the ability of the law enforcement agencies to conduct criminal investigations, although a higher burden of proof would be required in the warrant application procedure.

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