An outspoken legal group has set out its opposition to a proposed statutory press council appointed by the Chief Executive.
In a submission to the privacy subcommittee of the Law Reform Commission, the group, Justice, said the proposal to let Tung Chee-hwa appoint someone to form the council had 'conflict of interest' problems.
Justice chairwoman Gladys Li Chi-hei SC said Mr Tung and the Government were a 'natural subject of criticism'.
'The Government is, by virtue of its enormous and practically unchecked power, the natural subject of criticism and even trenchant attack by members of the public through the press and even by members of the press themselves,' she said in the submission.
'The gravity of this conflict of interest is deepened by the fact that both the Chief Executive and the Government he heads are not subject to democratic accountability and scrutiny by a legislature returned by universal suffrage.' Justice is the Hong Kong section of the International Commission of Jurists.
