XN000022-1997-03-06 — Page 27

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A Government spokesman explained today (Thursday) that the Judiciary's objective was to put in place by July 1, 1997 a wholly bilingual court system in which either English or Chinese can be used at all levels of the courts.

Since 1974, lawyers and magistrates have been able to use either of the languages in the magistrates' courts. The Official Languages (Amendment) Ordinance 1995 was also enacted in July 1995 to remove the restrictions on the use of Chinese in the higher courts and certain tribunals.

This was applied to the District Court and the Lands Tribunal in February 1996 and to the High Court (for hearing appeals from magistrates' courts, the Labour Tribunal and the Small Claims Tribunal) in December 1996.

At present proceedings in the High Court, except appeals from the lower courts and tribunals, and the Court of Appeal can still be conducted only in English. The Judiciary proposes to remove these restrictions on a phased basis by July 1, 1997.

"Accordingly, there is a need to amend the Jury Ordinance to change the language requirement for jurors from English to 'the language in which the proceedings are to be conducted', ie English or Chinese," the spokesman said.

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No licences for sale of new types of cordless phones

The Governor-in-Council has approved the making of an exemption order to permit the sale and use of new types of cordless telephones and cordless data communications equipment without the need of obtaining a licence.

The previous exemption order only covers existing types of cordless telephones conforming to the CT-0 and the CT-2 standards.

"The new exemption order will allow the sale and use of equipment conforming to the Japanese Personal Handy-Phone System (PHS) and the European Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) technical standards and certain types of cordless telephones conforming to American standards in addition to the existing types of cordless telephones CT-0 and CT-2," said an OFTA's spokesman.