Online media organisations are being denied access to government events not for political reasons but because officials are "not in a position to distinguish between them", Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing said yesterday.
Tsang was asked why online media organisations had been denied the right to register with the government's information services website, which would entitle them to invitations to government events and media passes for officials' activities, as well as access to government headquarters in Admiralty.
Tsang's reply to the question from information technology sector lawmaker Charles Mok failed to impress Wong Yeung-tat, founder of the online Passion Times, who believes websites are denied access for "political and bureaucratic" reasons.
But at the Legislative Council meeting yesterday, Tsang said granting access to online media would be impossible.
"In the absence of a legally binding registration or licensing regime, as in the case of the mainstream media, we are not in a position to distinguish among a wide range of online media, nor is it possible for us to grant access to all those claiming themselves to be 'online media'," Tsang said.