Media Release: Hong Kong
January 16, 2013
The International Federation of Journalists joins its affiliate the
Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) in calling on the Government of Hong
Kong to withdraw amendments to the Companies Ordinance which limits public access to information.
The IFJ learns that the Hong Kong Government is proposing subsidiary
legislation which will restrict access to information
contained in the company registries, severely hindering media investigations
into crimes such as money laundering and the abuse of power.
Currently, personal information, including names, residential
addresses and personal identification numbers of company directors are in the public
domain. Access to company registries has enabled investigative journalists to unearth
significant abuse of power and illegal activities such as the recent
revelations about the Secretary for Development, Paul Chan Mo-Po’s involvement in
a business which owns illegally subdivided flats, the purchase of apartments by
Ding Shumiao – implicated in corruption charges made against Chinese Railways
Minister Liu Zhijun – at a prestigious Henderson Land Development site, and the
discovery made by foreign media about the huge sums of money held by the
families of Communist Party General Secretary Xi
Jinping and Premier Wen Jiabao .
Hong Kong has over one million private registered
companies and is an international business centre. The media has been accessing
company registries for many years without any complaints of misuse of information.
“Privacy cannot override the public’s
right to access to information. The media must be allowed to fulfil its watch-dog
function and duty to report within the public interest. ” IFJ Asia-Pacific
office said.We
urge Professor K.C. Chan, secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury to
withdraw the proposed amendment to the Companies Ordinance, to preserve freedom
of information and the media’s ability to report in the public’s interest.”
The HKJA has launched a campaign to stop amendments to the
Companies Ordinance. We urge all journalists, journalists’
associations and unions to sign on to this campaign by emailing [email protected] or [email protected] before 22
January 2013 with the subject line “Stop amendments to the HK Companies
Ordinance.”
For
further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on +61 2 9333 0950
The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 131
countries
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