TNAG-1854-FCO40-2629-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-memoranda-and-minutes-of-me-1989 — Page 192

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

11 January 1989 香港立法局——————一九八九年一月十一日

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所以說,公安條例不單止是獨立的一個個案,其實也牽涉及備受關注而又敏感的人權問題,而 且往往反映出公眾對政府的信任程度。環繞公安條例的辯論可以說是一次重大的考驗,我願意從 樂觀的角度總結這次考驗。

主席先生,我謹此陳辭,支持動議。

SECRETARY FOR ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES AND INFORMATION: Sir, I am most grateful to the speakers who spoke in support of this Bill. I would like to take up, first, a few points made by Mr. Stephen CHEONG and then the general points raised by Dr. LEONG and Mr. SIT.

I would like to assure Mr. CHEONG that when I referred to "water having gone under the bridge", there was no intention of being complacent: these were expressions of conciliation that I was hoping that on the repeal of the section the wounds would not be re-opened.

On the question of consultation, Sir, during the period in 1987-88, fairly wide consultation was undertaken, mostly through the visit to my office of a variety of people: the journalists association, lawyers, publishers, owners of newspapers, but also an out-going effort was made whereby we were able to reach out and consult a very wide sector of the community. I suppose the central question asked by Mr. CHEONG is why some Members of the Legislative Council who have supported the Bill have not been individually consulted. Some were consulted, not all of them. But the process of consultation with the Legislative Council followed the standard and established procedure. On 30 November a Legislative Council brief was issued to Members and that marked the commencement of the period of consultation. From that day onwards, I was available to the Legislative Council and indeed I have been in their hands up to this moment. And today is 11 January, some six weeks have passed during which opportunities for consultation existed.

I was most struck, Sir, by some of the remarks made by Mr. Stephen CHEONG in relation to the quality of the press. He asked a few pertinent questions: what quality could we expect of the press; what kind of training are they getting; are they paid adequately; are we getting the right calibre of journalists and reporters? These are the very questions that occurred to me also, frequently, and I would like members of the press and those responsible for running the press, who own the press, who direct the press, to ask themselves these same questions. They should ponder over these points raised by Mr. CHEONG and some "soul searching" on their part would not be amiss.