THE Governor yesterday defended the shelving of the Broadcasting Bill, rebutting suggestions that the Government was going slow on improving freedom of information.
In a letter to the Journalists' Association, Chris Patten said he was disappointed by its reaction.
'You seem to be suggesting that the Hong Kong Government's intention is to back away from important broadcasting and freedom of speech issues. Nothing could be further from the truth,' he said.
Mr Patten said the issues which the bill supposed to tackle were extremely complicated and took time.
He said the administration was going full steam to devise rules for video-on-demand services and deregulating the pay-TV market.
'On the question of changes to the rules on foreign and cross-media ownership, action is already in hand to address these,' he said.
The Liberal Party's Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee said the party had long suggested that, if the bill was handled after the handover, it would avoid unnecessary disputes with China.
