TNAG-2862-FCO40-4116-Article-XIX-(lobby-group-for-press-freedom)-and-Hong-Kong-Jo-1993 — Page 112

Urgent Business: Hong Kong, Freedom of Expression and 1997

The other key thread of censorship policy, which also partly reflects concerns about China, is that which has sought to ensure the continued authority and legitimacy of British colonialism. The perceived need to control or suppress freedom of expression under conditions that might threaten the governing of the colony, and by extension British rule, shows itself in an armoury of censorship capabilities set out in local legislation, many quasi- emergency in nature.

If these laws remain unamended or unrepealed, they may well becomes useful tools to further restrict freedom of expression after 1997. But the future of the laws is but one issue of a much wider concern: can the UK, even at this late stage, show a real commitment to guaranteeing basic human rights.

With the transition now more than half complete, this report's main focus is to assess the prospects for freedom of expression in the final years of British rule and beyond 1997 under Chinese rule. The report examines the political and social history of censorship and self- censoring in the territory, the constitutional and legal implications of the handover for freedom of expression, and the present state of freedom of expression and the press as well as its possible future direction.

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