W(B)L 51-7406
CONFIDENTIAL
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
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in other respects. There the matter now rests
ARGUMENT
7. The Governor argues that in the case of
Section 122, the fact that the section confers
no power to exclude the press is sufficient to
ensure that adequate publicity can be given to
any proceedings even if the general public may
be excluded therefrom both during the hearing
and while the verdict is announced. He would
therefore like Section 122 to remain in its
present form.
Br
The Governor's reasons for asking that
any amendment of the two sections should be deferred (paragraph 6 above) are:
(a) that since the initial criticism of the
Ordinance at the time of its enactment in
September, 1968 (which was inspired from expatriate rather than local sources) there
have been no further attacks on it. There
is therefore no substantial demand in Hong
Kong for the amendments to be made.
(b) the introduction of the amendments at
this stage would attract unnecessary attention
to the Ordinance.
88.
Our Legal Advisers have pointed out¦ (*) that the two sections in question enable
members of the public to be excluded from the
court both during the hearing of a case and
during the announcement of the verdict. The
conferring of such a power is, so far as is
known, unprecedented in the British system of
law. It also departs from the principle of
Article 6(1) of the European Convention for
the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms, which was ratified by H.M.Government
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