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secondly, disqualifying an adjudicator who sat at an interim hearing from sitting again as a member of the Tribunal at a full hearing to review the classification of the same article; and

lastly, requiring the OAT to identify at both interim and full hearings the offending part or parts of an article which give rise to an "obscene" or "indecent" classification. This piece of information will be filed together with the article concerned in the repository of the OAT for public information.

However, the OAT will not be able to publish this information in an annual The OAT report as proposed by the Honourable Selina Chow at this moment. examined over 12,800 cases last year. To publish the rulings on all such cases would make the report extremely bulky and expensive to compile and print. In any case, interested parties can always go to the repository to obtain the information required. The need for the OAT to identify the part or parts of an article on which basis the article is classified as "obscene" or "indecent", will require additional resources before it can be put into effect. The implementation of this amendment, therefore, will have to be deferred to a later date when the necessary resources are made available to the OAT. All other amendments, however, can be put into effect when the Bill is enacted and a date set for its implementation.

Finally, we have agreed to a number of amendments proposed by the Honourable Eric Li to strengthen the enforcement of this Bill. Firstly, we will clarify the meaning of "publisher" by adding specifically persons who control or manage the printing, manufacturing or reproduction of an article. A new offence will be created to penalise any person who knowingly or wilfully allows his name to be printed on an indecent article as the publisher of the article, when in fact he is not. The maximum penalty for this offence will be a fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for 6 months. These two amendments will reduce the chances of surrogates being employed to circumvent the new restrictions imposed on publishers of indecent articles.

Furthermore, we have agreed to give inspectors of TELA as defined in the Bill the power to seize indecent articles in public places. We have all along been very cautious of any proposals to turn TELA into a fully fledged law enforcement agency similar to the Police with the power of arrest. Being civilian staff, TELA inspectors are not trained for investigative and conventional law enforcement duties. Such duties remain best to be discharged, as at present, by the Police and the Custom and Excise Department. However, to augment and enhance the overall effectiveness of enforcement, the additional powers entrusted to TELA inspectors should greatly facilitate the control and regulation of indecent articles. Notwithstanding this amendment, the Royal Hong Kong Police Force and the Customs and Excise Department will continue to vigilantly enforce this Ordinance as at present.