TNAG-1643-FCO40-2290-Hong-Kong-Rating-(Amendment)-Ordinance-1987-1987 — Page 13

7

A42

Ord. No. 9/87

Reconsideration of article.

Publisher etc. to give notice

of classification.

Registrar to give notice.

CONTROL OF OBSCENE AND INDECENT ARTICLES

(2) Where a Tribunal is of the opinion that the interests of publ morality require that all or any persons should be excluded from a hearing the presiding magistrate may direct that those persons be excluded accordingly; but the power conferred by this subsection shall not be exercised for the purpose of excluding any person who submitted the article, or any person who would have been entitled to submit it, under section 13 or his representative, or any bona fide reporter for any newspaper, magazine or radio or television station.

(3) A Tribunal may, whether or not it gives a direction under subsection (2), make an order forbidding the broadcasting, whether by radio or television, or other publication of any report or account of the whole or any part of any evidence adduced before it.

17. (1) Subject to subsection (2), a Tribunal may of its own motion, or at the request of any person who submitted an article or of any person who would have been entitled to submit it under section 13, reconsider the classification of the article and may alter or confirm that classification.

(2) A Tribunal may refuse a request to reconsider the classification of any article submitted under section 13 if that article was classified within a period of 3 years prior to that submission.

(3) This Part shall apply to any motion or request to reconsider a classification as if such motion or request were a requirement for a full hearing under section 15.

18. (1) The printer, manufacturer, publisher, distributor and im- porter of any article which is classified as a Class I or Class II article shall give notice in the prescribed manner of that classification and of any conditions imposed under section 8(2)(c) to any person to whom after that classification has taken effect he publishes more than 2 copies.

(2) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable to a fine of $200,000 and to imprisonment for 12 months.

19. (1) The Registrar shall give notice in accordance with subsec- tion (2)—

(a) of any interim classification;

(b) of any classification—

(i) made at a full hearing;

(ii) deemed to be the classification of a Tribunal under sec- tion 15(5); or

(iii) made following a reconsideration under section 17; and

(c) of any conditions imposed under section 8(2)(c).

(2) Notice under subsection (1) shall be given once each in an English language newspaper and a Chinese language newspaper published daily and circulating generally in Hong Kong.

(3) If notice in accordance with subsection (2) is published in the newspapers referred to in that subsection on different days, notice shall be deemed to have been given on the last of those days.

(4) The Registrar shall keep and maintain, in such form as he thinks fit, a register of notices given under this section.

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CONTROL OF OBSCENE AND INDECENT

Ord. No. 9/87

A43

ARTICLES

20. (1) The Registrar shall keep and maintain, in such manner as he Registrar to nks fit, a repository for the keeping of articles submitted for classification keep repository. under section 13.

(2) Except with the consent of a Tribunal all articles submitted for classification under section 13 shall be kept in the repository for a period of 5 years from the date on which it is classified and may thereafter be disposed of in accordance with the directions of the Registrar.

PART IV

OFFENCES

21. (1) Subject to subsection (2) any person who-- (a) publishes;

(b) possesses for the purpose of publication; or (c) imports for the purpose of publication,

any obscene article, whether or not he knows that it is an obscene article, commits an offence and is liable to a fine of $1,000,000 and to imprisonment for 3 years.

(2) It shall be a defence to a charge—

(a) under subsection (1) for a defendant to prove that, at the time the offence is alleged to have been committed, the article the subject of the charge was classified as a Class III article; but he may be convicted of any other offence under this Part established by the evidence as if he had been charged with that other offence;

(b) under subsection (1) for a defendant to prove that the article the subject of the charge is, or was at the time the offence is alleged to have been committed, classified as a Class I or a Class II article;

(c) under subsection (1)(b) or (c) for a defendant to prove that, at the time the offence is alleged to have been committed, the article the subject of the charge was possessed or imported by him—

(i) for the purpose of submitting it, a copy thereof or a print therefrom to the Registrar under section 13; or

Prohibition on publishing obscene articles.

(ii) by a person licensed to broadcast under section 8 of the Television Ordinance for the purpose of submitting it to the panel (Cap. 52.)

of censors under section 32 of that Ordinance;

(d) under subsection (1)(b) for a defendant to prove that, at the time

that offence is alleged to have been committed, hc-

(i) had had no reasonable opportunity to inspect the article the subject of the charge; and

(ii) had reasonable grounds for believing that article was not obscene; and

(e) under subsection (1)(c) for a defendant to prove that, at the time that offence is alleged to have been committed, he had reasonable grounds for believing that the article the subject of the charge was not obscene.