'We can't have one country, two systems here,' administrator allegedly said on running of group's English paper

The founding editor of the now-defunct Eastern Express newspaper was told 'we can't have one country, two systems here' when he was seen to challenge the authority of the then chairman of Hong Kong's largest publishing group, a court heard yesterday.

On his first day on the stand, sacked editor Stephen Vines said matters normally under the control of Oriental Press Group chairman Ma Ching-kwan were forfeited when it came to running the English-language newspaper.

The relationship between the two men is at the centre of a libel case over a Next Magazine article on Mr Vines' dismissal which claimed the Oriental Press Group interfered with the editorial independence of the Eastern Express. The magazine, its editor-in-chief, Cheung Kim-hung, and printer Toppan Printing Co (HK) are accused of defaming the group.

Oriental Press Group maintains Mr Vines was sacked in September 1994 because he was a 'very bad administrator'.

Mr Vines yesterday told the Court of First Instance that when he was headhunted by Mr Ma he was guaranteed total editorial control in his contract.

He said he also discussed with Mr Ma the difficulty in expecting staff used to working in Western-style newspapers to conform to the culture that existed in the Oriental Press Group. 'I was assured personally by Mr Ma the highly regulated conditions of the Chinese-language newspapers would not apply to an English-language newspaper,' he said.

The court heard things came to a head when a series of 'postcards' satirising paramount leader Deng Xiaoping's younger brother, Deng Ken, were published in May 1994 and led to Mr Ma being refused entry to a dinner party with Deng Ken.