After a round of appeals, the government has finally won its case against Citizens' Radio for broadcasting without a licence. The law has been clarified, but this is no reason to celebrate. As it stands, the magistrate's original ruling in favour of the radio station was flawed. This has been rectified after he convicted and fined six radio activists on the order of the Court of Appeal to rule on the case again. But the law itself is outdated and needs to be revamped to meet conditions in the 21st century.

Douglas Yau Tak-hong, who has since been promoted to the District Court, had ruled that the charges were unconstitutional. His reasoning was that freedom of speech was protected under the Basic Law, yet the chief executive enjoyed unfettered power to decide on applications for a broadcasting licence. He was found by the appeal court to have erred in raising the constitutional issue. Despite the conviction, Yau praised the activists' motive as 'noble'. That the judge was made to eat humble pie does not invalidate his original comments. On the most crucial points, Yau was right as a citizen, if not a judge. Whether by design or not, Hong Kong's broadcasting rules favour big and well-funded corporations because of stringent conditions overseen by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority. Some regulation is necessary, but the process should be transparent and the requirement not unduly restrictive. There is no reason why some radio frequencies should not be assigned - either for free or a token amount - to members of the public who wish to express their creativity or otherwise make their views known.

Indeed, many already do this by broadcasting on the internet, over which there are no restrictions. In other words, activists can broadcast the same messages and reach comparable audiences. They breach the law in one medium (radio) but not another (the internet). This shows that the law is arbitrary and should be updated to meet the new technological realities. Officials should amend the law to make the licensing system fairer and enhance freedom of speech.