2007 Chapter Updates
Chapter 1: Overview and Freedom of Expression
2 November 2007: “G.O.D. forbid!” The Standard
Summary: Police arrested 18 people from a local clothing chain store, saying that the design on T-shirts marketed by Goods of Desire – or G.O.D. as the store is popularly known – was linked to a triad society and that those who purchased them could also be arrested. Police said possessing triad products was a violation of the Societies Ordinance, which refers to slogans, published materials and objects with symbolic meanings. Police confiscated 88 T-shirts and more than 500 postcards printed with a “14K” logo, “? x K”- with the numbers written in Chinese characters, which police said referred to the “14K” triad gang in Hong Kong. The police raid followed a recent media report on products the store was selling.
2007 Hong Kong Journalist Association annual report
Chapter 2: The Legal System
1 December 2007 “Top court acts on increase in judicial reviews,” South China Morning Post
SUMMARY: In a ruling Nov. 30, the Court of Final Appeal revised standards for when the courts should accept a request for judicial review. Prior to the ruling, Hong Kong courts were bound by the test of “potential arguability,” described as a showing that “on further consideration at a subsequent hearing an arguable case might be demonstrated.” The CFA imposed a stricter standard that only cases shown to be “reasonably arguable” would proceed.
22 October 2007 “Expand legal aid scheme, Law Society urges; Group seeks to extend system to cover nearly all civil lawsuits,” South China Morning Post.
SUMMARY: The Law Society has urged the HK government to widen access to the courts by expanding supplementary legal aid to cover additional cases, including judicial review, probate, trust, trademark, consumer and land disputes, but not for defamation and maintenance of children. The Law Society’s recommendations are contained in its submission to the Law Reform Commission’s proposal to set up a conditional legal aid fund, which would rquire lawyers to work on a “no win, no fee” basis.
31 July 2007 “Review of age limit for judges urged,” South China Morning Post
SUMMARY: Hong Kong’s higher courts face a significant loss of their top legal brains as many of the most experienced judges will reach the retirement age of 65 in the next five to seven years. By the end of 2012, six of the Court of Appeal’s 10 judges will have to retire, as will eight of 27 judges at the Court of First Instance and seven of the 35 District Court judges. In 2014 all four serving permanent judges on the Court of Final Appeal will reach 65.
9 July 2007 Law Reform Commission proposes that the public have wider access to the courts with the use of conditional legal fees and a conditional legal aid fund for some cases, including defamation.
Chapter 3: Defamation
10 October 2007: “Aaron Kwok sues magazine for libel”, South China Morning Post
SUMMARY: Singer and actor Aaron Kwok Fu-shing is suing Sudden Weekly magazine for defamation after it published a story linking him to a fatal crash involving a Ferrari. Filing a writ in the High Court on Oct. 8, Kwok is suing the publisher of Sudden Weekly, the magazine’s editor Chiu Wai-kin and its printing company Paramount Printing Company Limited. He is seeking damages for libel and an injunction against the magazine after it ran a cover story on September 28, 2007.
The writ said the headline and story incorrectly alleged that Kwok was suspected of being involved in a September 23, 2007 car accident in which wealthy knitwear factory businessman Chan Kin-wo, 50, died. The writ also said a picture of Kwok in the driver’s seat of a red Ferrari had accompanied the article.
“The publication has gravely damaged the reputation and character of the plaintiff [Kwok], exposed him to considerable public ridicule, scandal and contempt and caused him substantial anguish,” it said. “The defendants knew or ought to have known that the allegations concerning the plaintiff in the cover story in relation to the accident were false.
“During the period from September 19, 2007, to September 26, 2007, the plaintiff was in mainland China … engaged in concert performance and film promotion,” the writ said.
Chapter 4: Court Reporting/Contempt of Court
23 September 2007 “London ruling thwarts efforts of local courts,” South China Morning Post.
SUMMARY: Hong Kong courts have been thwarted in attempts to prevent damaging information being published about the business and personal affairs of the Congolese president’s son. A judgment in the London High Court has effectively made two rulings in Hong Kong superfluous because the information suppressed in Hong Kong was now being circulated around the world.
In London, Mr. Justice Stanley Burnton said the documents at the heart of the matter suggested that Denis Christel Sassou-Nguesso, son of Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, was engaged in corrupt oil dealings and had spent lavishly on luxury goods using Hong Kong-issued credit cards. the London ruling arises from a case brought by the US-based vulture fund Kensington International, which was seeking disclosure of the documents, against Hong Kong-based ICS Services, whoch provides secretarial services for companies controlled by Mr. Sassou-Nguesso. The documents and the information obtained from them were passed to Global Witness, a British pressure group, which made them public.
Mr. Sassou-Nguesso’s lawyers had attempted to enforce in London two earlier rulings by judges in Hong Kong. The English judge found there was no justification to suppress the information.
July/Aug 2007 London ruling
Aug 2007 Hong Kong judge’s response to London ruling
Chapter 5: Access to Information
20 August 2007 “Officials breached code on data access; Transport bureau wrong to deny researcher’s request for railway suicide details,” South China Morning Post.
SUMMARY: An investigation by the Ombudsman’s office concluded that Transport bureau officials breached the government’s Code on Access to Information when they repeatedly denied a request by a university researcher for information on railway suicide incidents. After the ruling and 14 months after the initial request, the bureau released the information to Fu King-wa, a PhD student at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong who was conducting research for the Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, also at HKU. In its ruling, the Ombudsman said, “This case highlights the need for Government to raise the awareness of bureaux and departments regarding their obligations under the Code.” It recommended publicity and training programs to enhance awareness and understanding among government employees. August 2007 Ombudsman Reply
For more on the story, see JMSC website.
20 June 2007 Legco Question on access to information about suicide or attempted suicides on rail tracks
11 June 2007 After a series of stories in the South China Morning Post, the Medical Council of Hong Kong says it will publish written judgments of its disciplinary hearings but only make them available to the media on the day a verdict is announced.
Chapter 6: Privacy
27 November 2007 In the case of Shi Tao, a PRC journalist convicted for revealing state secrets after Yahoo! provided user information to authorities, the Administrative Appeals Board of Hong Kong ruled insufficient evidence that personal data were disclosed and that the content given was “in accordance with legal procedure.”
1 November 2007 “Watchdog reports four surveillance breaches,” South China Morning Post.
SUMMARY: Four breaches of the covert surveillance law were committed in the first five months after it took effect in August last year. They included tapping the wrong person’s phone for a week, but all were inadvertent, the Commissioner on Interception of Communications and Surveillance said in his first report. A total of 526 authorisations were issued during the period, leading to 177 arrests, the report said.
Permission for tapping telephone lines or reading e-mails must be granted to law enforcement officers by a special panel of judges in compliance with the Interception of Communications and Surveillance Ordinance.
For the full report by the Commissioner on Interception of Communications and Surveillance, click here.
Chapter 7: Official Secrets and Sedition
5 July 2007, “Silence is golden, security chief reminds officers,” The Standard
Chapter 8: Other Restrictions on Newsgathering and Reporting
Chapter 9: Reporting on the Mainland
19 December 2007 “More Media Services Promised,” China Daily.
Summary: The Chinese government will provide comprehensive service to the foreign media next year with timely dissemination of more authoritative information, Minister of the State Council Information Office Cai Wu pledged. Addressing a New Year reception for the media, Cai said the country is braced for an array of important events, including the Beijing Olympic Games and the 30th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up. An estimated 30,000 foreign journalists are expected next summer in Beijing to cover the Games. Cai promised that China would ‘comprehensively’ implement the State Council order granting foreign journalists more freedom to report in China in the run-up to, and during, the Games.
11 December 2007 A JMSC guide (by Rebecca Mackinnon) to reporters working from mainland China on getting around Internet censorship, protecting against Internet surveillance and securing e-mail communications
http://jmsc.hku.hk/blogs/newmedia/working-from-mainland-china/
7 December 2007 ”Beijing police raids Hong Kong newspaper office,” BBC Worldwide Monitoring, citing article on website of Ming Pao.
19 November 2007, “Party newspaper attacks foreign media and Reporters Without Borders“ Reporters Without Borders reports: “The governmental news agency Xinhua today posted an article on its website from Huanqiu Shibao (Global Times), a sister publication of the Communist Party’s Remin Ribao (People’s Daily), condemning the ‘determination of organisations that relay prejudices’ against China. Claiming that China is the victim of baseless rumours spread by NGOs such as Reporters Without Borders, it cites recent reports that the Chinese authorities are compiling files on foreign journalists in the approach to the Olympic Games. One by one, the article takes issues with all the recent reports by foreign newspapers and NGOs about the Olympics. In particular, it denies the story about files being kept on foreign journalists and accuses the Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, Die Welt, Associated Press, Voice of America and other foreign media of ’spreading rumours’ in an attempt to destabilize the government. An ‘expert on Sino-German relations,’ identified as Beixike, is quoted as saying these ‘inventions’ are part of a plan to sabotage the Olympics.”
13 November 2007 “China Officials Deny Media File Reports,” Editor & Publisher
The Chinese government and Beijing Olympics officials tried to back away Tuesday from newspaper reports that the Communist authorities are assembling a database to monitor foreign journalists covering the games.
14 September 2007 Arrests and incidents involving foreign journalists show government is not keeping Olympic Games promises. (Reporters Without Borders)
13 September 2007 New York Times researcher released from prison. Zhao Yan was released after serving his full three-year sentence on fraud charges. He was originally detained on charges of revealing state secrets but was eventually convicted of fraud charges involving a local official. Zhao maintained his innocence and his lawyers were not allowed to cross examine prosecution witnesses at trial. 17 August 2007 China announces crackdown on “false news” and “illegal coverage” ahead of party Congress. 8 August 2007 Widespread Detentions of Foreign Journalists Show China Unprepared to Host Olympic Press Corp in 2008 Two years before more than 20,000 international journalists descend on Beijing for the opening of the Olympic Games, a survey by the Foreign Correspondents Club of China shows that Chinese authorities frequently detain foreign reporters, and occasionally use violence against them and their sources.
6 August 2007 Foreign journalists covering press freedom protests detained in Beijing. (Committee to Protect Journalists)
6 August 2007 US Congress to probe Yahoo!’s role in cyber-dissident Shi Tao’s case.
12 July 2007 China Development Brief
12 July 2007 Ban on China Development Brief seen as part of growing censorship of socio-economic news, Reporters Without Borders
26 June 2007 Government backs down on legislation to censor coverage of emergencies, Reporters Without Borders
25 May 2007 Two foreign reporters summoned and warned about Tibet stories, Reporters Without Borders
9 May 2007 Service guide for foreign media coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games and the preparatory period.
May 2007 China adopts first nationwide open government information regulations.
Chapter 10: Copyright
18 May 2007 “Man in first BitTorrent Internet piracy case jailed after appeal dismissed,” HKSAR government
Court of Final Appeal decision, Chan Nai Ming v. HKSAR (May 18, 2007)
Chapter 11: Print and Online Regulation and Self-Regulation
–Obscenity
24 August 2007 “Ming Pao seeks review of indecency ruling on sex-column articles,” South China Morning Post.
Summary: Ming Pao is seeking judicial review in the High Court of an interim indecency classification imposed on features it ran on the Chinese University student journal’s controversial sex column. The newspaper describes the ruling by the Obscene Articles Tribunal as irrational and procedurally flawed. Barrister Denis Chang said in Ming Pao’s written application that OAT had failed to identify the nature of the indecency and recognise the “honest purpose” of the articles and that the review should be conducted under a constitutional framework that included the Basic Law and the Bill of Rights.
13 July 2007 Three Weekly magazine is denied request to take the Court of Appeal obscene article ruling to the Court of Final Appeal. Court of Appeal ruling (31 May 2007)
7 July 2007, “Student journal to launch challenge,” The Standard
24 May 2007 “Newspaper indecent“ (Ming Pao article on sex survey classified as indecent by Obscene Articles Tribunal), The Standard
23 May 2007, ”Article in Chinese paper on student sex survey deemed indecent,” RTHK
11 May 2007 Man fined HK$5,000 for link to porn site
17 April 2007, “Magazine cleared in teen star photos pornography case,” The Standard
Chapter 12: Broadcast Media Regulation
27 November 2007, “Jail vow as Szeto airs radio conviction,” The Standard
SUMMARY: Veteran politician Szeto Wah, accused of taking part in an illegal radio broadcast in May, said he will not plead guilty and would go to jail than pay a fine if convicted. Szeto, 76, chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, is accused of speaking on May 25 at a Mong Kok street forum hosted by Citizens’ Radio, which has not been granted a license by the Telecommunications Authority. The program’s topic involved the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Szeto alleges that he is being selectively prosecuted as others — including an executive councillor, a pro-government legislator and a local NPC deputy — have also been featured on Citizens Radio and not been charged. Szeto’s case in Eastern Magistrates Court has been adjourned to Dec. 7.
21 June 2007 Joseph Cho Man-kit was granted leave for a judicial review on the Broadcasting Authority’s censure of the RTHK television show, Hong Kong Connection — Gay Lovers. Cho, a guest on the show, contends that BA has no statutory authority to monitor a government broadcaster and that it discriminated against minorities and infringed on freedom of expression. The review is expected to be heard in the fall, according to Cho’s solicitor, Michael Vidler.
12 March 2007 Legislative Council unanimously passed a motion demanding the Broadcasting Authority withdraw its ruling that an RTHK programme on homosexuals was unfair, partial and biased towards gays. Other developments:
