Archive group bemoans lack of official support for law

A group of influential former judges and scholars have laid the legal ground and gathered enough political support for the city's first archive law. But they say government officials are dragging their feet.

The Archives Action Group - a group of archivists, academics and retired judges pushing for an archival law - said it had secured support from pan-democrats, pro-government legislators Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee of the New People's Party, and the Federation of Trade Unions.

Legislative Council president Tsang Yok-sing had also shown positive response, promising to bring the archives protection issue to his party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong.

Having lined up support from lawmakers across the political spectrum, the group is confident of the law's passage, but says the government is reluctant to help it and has failed to grant its requests to meet Chief Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen.

The issue of the lack of legislation concerning archives arose from repeated incidents of the government not storing records correctly.

In December, when the South China Morning Post requested the records of public funds paid to people as compensation for fung shui disruption caused by the construction of two rail lines in the New Territories, government officials variously said the information had been destroyed, was kept by other departments or was not kept in the first place.

But the group said the storage or discarding of any official records should be bound by an archive law.