ARTICLE 19 and The Hong Kong Journalists Association
3.1.2 Seeking, receiving and imparting information and ideas
The second paragraph lays down the substantive principle of freedom of expression:
Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.
The principle of free speech has three component parts here: freedom to seek, to receive, and to impart information. The "seeking and receiving [are] guaranteed as prerequisites to the freedom to impart which formally is the activity of expression". During the drafting of the Covenant's equivalent Article 19, the positive term "seek" was adopted to "endorse active and investigative journalism in the public interest". Equally, there is a strong case to be made that the term "seek" implies a positive right of access to official information and confers on a government a duty to allow access to such information.10 This in fact is the thrust of an on-going campaign in Hong Kong to persuade the British administration to enact freedom of information legislation and open up the process of government."1
12
As the second component of freedom of expression, the right of everyone to receive "information and ideas of all kinds", regardless of frontiers, is critical to the public's right to know. It has special resonance with regard to the jamming, and banning, of outside radio and television broadcasts, a common practice on the mainland. Article 16 should in theory preclude any prohibition on reception of outside broadcasts in the territory, as it should do any ban on receipt of materials such as publications, films, news, and raw data in any form. Seen in this context, subsidiary legislation under the Television Ordinance which confers on the Broadcasting Authority a broad power to approve any source or service of "news covering international or local affairs" clearly seems to be incompatible with Article 16.13
8
Id. at 15.
Id. Under regulations requiring local journalists to apply for permits to report on the mainland, China has already effectively restricted the right to seek information and ideas, irrespective of frontiers, in what is soon to be the territory's own sovereign state.
10
Id.
11 The campaign was launched in Feb. 1992 by a coalition of three groups: the HKJA, Justice (the Hong Kong Section of the International Commission of Jurists), and the Hong Kong Human Rights Commission. Friends of the Earth in Hong Kong later joined the campaign. See Chapter 4, Section 4.3.
12
In addition to (barely observed) bans on the reception of Hong Kong's two television stations, the Chinese authorities have also banned reception in China of the Hong Kong-based regional satellite television service, STAR TV.
13 See Chapter 4, Section 4.4.2.
20
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