TNAG-1735-FCO40-2448-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 169

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 18 May 1988

1431

'negative' approach (now please do not take it negatively). Part of section 5 of the 1972 Film Censorship Standards A Note of Guidance reads:

‘a film or any particular part of a film, trailer or advertisement will not be banned by the censor, unless in his considered opinion there is a likelihood that its showing in a public place would-(and there are some eight such criteria, but I will read out the three most important ones):

(ii) corrupt morals or encourage crime, particularly crimes of violence, or

encourage the unlawful taking of drugs;

(iii) provoke hatred between persons in Hong Kong of differing race,

colour, class, nationality, creed or sectional interest;

(vii) damage good relations with other territories'.

The negative formulation was followed and the same eight criteria were adopted in regulation 3A of the Film Censorship Regulations 1987.

However, Sir, the present Bill changes this negative formulation into a positive one, and I refer Members to clause 10(2) and 10(3).

Now subclause 10(3) is now to be amended as agreed between the Adminis- tration to the effect that (d) will be added to clause 10(3). This is still a positive formulation which is the undesirable formulation in my view having the effect that censors and the board of review will also take into account, as in Mr. YEUNG PO-kwan's amendment, article 19 of the International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights.

However, in the course of the ad hoc groups's deliberations, an alternative amendment was considered which used what I termed the negative approach. The exploratory draft was written by the Legal Adviser to the Office of Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils, Mr. Jonathan Daw, and which I think should not be omitted from our open public records. I have, therefore, appended it to my speech and I shall hand a copy to the Clerk after the meeting for Hansard. It is a complete rework of the proposed clause 10. I will simply read out the proposed clause 10(4) (now please note that this numbering is different from the numbering in the Bill). I read this out simply to highlight the difference between the two formulations. The revised clause 10(4) reads as follows:

'The censor, when making his decision under subsection (2), shall take into account the following matters:

(a) the artistic, educational, literary or scientific merit of the film and its importance for cultural or social reasons, having regard particularly to the preservation of freedom of expression;

(b) the effect of the film as a whole and its likely effect on the persons likely

to view the film; and

(c) in relation to the intended exhibition of the film, the circumstances of

such exhibition,