The Judiciary is prepared to make changes to create a more open system of justice if such steps are found to be necessary, said acting Chief Justice Noel Power yesterday.
In his speech at the opening of the new legal year, Mr Justice Power said working parties set up to consider secret hearings would soon deliver their reports.
'If changes are warranted, they will be made,' he pledged.
Mr Justice Power said he included a section on open justice in his speech because 'there has been a suggestion in at least one prominent newspaper that the courts of Hong Kong do not dispense open justice'.
The South China Morning Post has been running a campaign for open justice, which led to a working party being set up to look at secret criminal hearings and the withdrawal of a move to make charge sheets confidential.
Mr Justice Power said most hearings heard 'in chambers' involved the mechanics of the law.
'They are conducted in a way which is less formal and less expensive and for the most part are not matters in which the general public would have any legitimate interest or, indeed, any interest at all.' But he added: 'I acknowledge how wrong it would be for us to shut our ears to criticism.
