Statement on the Power of Police in Controlling Procession,
Assembly and Collecting Money in Public Places
As a group of religious organizations, we are deeply concerned about the issue of which some democrats are accused of committing the offences of using loud-hailers and collecting money in public places without licences. Feeling that the law empowers the police too much power in controlling processions, gatherings and freedom of speech, we have the following opinions:
With the publication of the Draft Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance, which aimed at protecting the human rights and amending the existing ordinances considered to have infringed the human rights, the Legco Ad Hoc Group on Bill of Rights and the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs have already picked out more than 15 ordinances obviously contravening the Bill of Rights. Among these, Section 4 (29) of Summary Offences Ordinance (Chapter 228) concerning the use of loud-hailer and the Public Order Ordinance (Chapter 245) which aroused much attention in the past are included and are under examination. Since publication of the said Bill, the prosecuting
the prosecuting of people for using loud-hailer and collecting money in accordance with these ordinances is, in fact, a great slap to the Bill of Rights. Moreover, we are doubtful of the sincerity of the Government to protect human rights, especially the freedom of assembly, procession and speech.
or
According to
to Section 4(29) of Summary Offences Ordinance, any person may be accused of committing offence if one "uses introduces in or into any public place any loud-speaker, megaphone or other device or instrument for magnifying sound" without any general or special permit as the Commissioner of Police in his absolute discretion may issue. Thus, any organization who wants to use loud-hailer in any public place must apply for a permit and be accepted.
Several points under this Ordinance are worth discussing for these may lead to serious restrictions on freedom of expression. Firstly, the Commissioner of Police enjoys wide discretionary power to grant or withold the necessary permit without any reasonable explanation to that. Also, the recent charges against the democrats by the police is explicitly based on political reasons during the enforcement of this Ordinance.
Secondly, there is no
no clear definition of the term "public places" in this Ordinance. Public places can include various places like streets, piers, subways, squares, and some other premises which are either government-owned or privately-owned and can be accessed and used by the public regularly. Thus, youth centres, churches, football fields can also be considered as public places. Anyone, including tourist guide, uses loud-speaker without the permission from the Commissioner of Police may be put under accusation. Whether they will be sued or not entirely depends on the judgement of the police. As a result, if the police use their power to prosecute
prosecute the civilians arbitrarily the civilians may be accused of committing offences despite the nature of the activities, that is,
is, organizers of assembly, procession, or even
even recreational activities may all face the danger. In fact, since loud-hailer is an indispensable instrument in assembly and procession, we claim that only if the using of loud-hailer lead to public disorder can this basic human right be deprived by the Government.
In fact, in the report handed to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nation in October, 1989, the Government listed out all the conditions for limitations of using "instrument to
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