As a former director of the Government Records Service, I wholeheartedly support the case presented by Jane Moir in her article ("Officials impede Hong Kong's progress by blocking freer flow of information", March 10).
The failure of the administration to react positively to the Ombudsman's recommendation for enactment of legislation on access to government information is to be condemned without reservation.
But its failure is, regrettably, not unexpected from a regime that appears consistently to reject the values and institutions of a modern democratic society and to wilfully ignore the expressed wishes of the people of Hong Kong.
Even if a law on access to government information were passed, it would be of limited value if the records containing that information were not created in the first place, could not be readily located, or had been arbitrarily or inappropriately destroyed.
To prevent this requires archives legislation to ensure that records are created and managed in an accountable and transparent manner, in keeping with international standards and professional best practice.
Ironically, the enactment of an archives law was also recommended by the Ombudsman, and then duly ignored by the administration.