Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
London SWIA 2AH
3 February 1993
Ms Frances D'Souza Director Article XIX 90 Borough High Street London
SE1 1LL
From The Minister of State
Dew its D'Souzine
Thank you for your letters of 20 January to Douglas Hurd and me enclosing copies of the Article XIX report Urgent Business: Hong Kong, Freedom of Expression and 1997. We were able to discuss this when Emily Lau and colleagues from Legco called on Douglas Hurd on 27 January.
We share your belief in the value to Hong Kong of a free press. As the report indicates Hong Kong is fortunate in enjoying a press which is surely the most free and vigourous of any in Asia. We also agree about the relationship between a free press and strengthening Hong Kong's democratic institutions. Let me address the main recommendations of the report in order.
The report claims that in several respects the Basic Law does not reflect the spirit of the Joint Declaration. We made clear at the time of the Basic Law's promulgation, that although it does in many areas repeat word for word the language of the Joint Declaration, there are points which we would have wished to have seen drafted differently.
The report refers to Article 158 of the Basic Law and calls for the "power of final interpretation of the Basic Law to be restored to the Hong Kong Courts where the Joint Declaration had specifically stated it should rest". We understand your concern. However the Basic Law has gone a considerable way in conferring judicial power of interpretation on the SAR's courts. They are authorised to interpret on their own those provisions of the Basic Law falling within the range of the SAR's autonomy. The only cases on which the SAR's courts are clearly obliged, in the circumstances set out in the third paragraph of
/Article 158
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