This is the Post article which led Miss Leung to make public her reasons for not prosecuting Sally Aw.
Sally Aw told the ICAC she gave her staff the green light to go ahead with plans to inflate circulation figures of the Hong Kong Standard by printing more newspapers, according to a statement seen by the South China Morning Post.
Ms Aw said: 'I just wanted to raise the circulation figures. It was just as simple as that.' She added: 'This was a commercial decision, that is to get more advertisers.' But she denied any knowledge the plot involved fraud and deception and said she had left details to her staff. Asked whether she agreed the scheme had deceived the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), she said: 'I find it difficult to say. I agree [sic] to it, but I did not do it, because it was done by them. That is, they did it in the company.' An ICAC officer suggested in the interview that extra newspapers printed each day were purchased by a company called Mornstar, owned by the Standard, and fake figures submitted to the ABC for certification.
But Ms Aw said the details were not discussed. The ICAC officer asked: 'Was it that you agreed to print more and submit the figure to the ABC?' Ms Aw said: 'Yes, that's all, nothing had been said about the submission of the figures to the ABC. It was only about printing more.' She added: 'We did not go into details about the deception as you called it . . . I did not instruct them how to do it, how to practise deception and things like that. I completely know nothing about it.' Her comments were made during a videotaped interview on June 4, 1997.
After being warned of her rights, Ms Aw said the proposal was put forward by general manager Henrietta So.
Ms Aw said So only talked about it 'briefly' and had not gone into details before the plan was put into action.
