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Ban on naming suspects 'puzzling'

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It was absurd for police to stop releasing the names of suspects and victims from crime reports, a legislator said yesterday.

Non-affiliated Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, who represents the legal sector, said the move would turn such reports into a cluster of mere signs and symbols.

'It is a move that will boost government control [of the flow of information] at the expense of people's right to know. A name is an identification. Why is it a privacy [issue]? I find the move puzzling,' she said.

Ms Ng, a regular newspaper columnist, asked whether reporters would now have to refer to people involved in crime reports in figures.

'The question is: what are you reporting if the five 'Ws' [what, when, where, why and who] in news reports are to be replaced by mere signs?' she said. 'It will amount to stripping news reports of the most elementary information.'

Democrat James To Kun-sun said he did not think the decision to stop releasing names in crime reports to the media was a 'good balance' between privacy protection and people's right to know.

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