TNAG-1815-FCO40-2576-Hong-Kong-Public-Order-(Amendment)-Bill-1988-1988 — Page 17

CONFIDENTIAL

Background

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4.

In 1951, the Control of Publications

(Consolidation) Ordinance ("the Ordinance") was enacted.

To meet local conditions at the time, it contained a number

of fairly draconian control provisions. The Ordinance has

been reviewed periodically and in 1986, it was decided that:

(a)

all the control provisions, with one exception,

should be repealed;

(b)

the remainder of the Ordinance should be

overhauled and retitled Registration of Local

Newspapers Ordinance; and

(c)

the one remaining control provision, forbidding

malicious publication in any local newspaper of

false news likely to cause public alarm, should

be transferred to the Public Order Ordinance.

The vehicles for implementing these changes were the

Control of Publications (Consolidation) (Amendment) Bill and

the Public Order (Amendment) Bill which were gazetted on

19 December 1986 and introduced into the Legislative

Council on 7 January 1987.

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CONFIDENTIAL

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