Journalists should have strong public interest grounds for publishing material that would contravene proposed anti-subversion legislation, the secretary for justice warned yesterday.
Citing the Watergate scandal in the US in 1972, Elsie Leung Oi-sie said the publication of unauthorised or sensitive information would contravene the proposed law unless an acceptable defence could be produced.
Speaking at a Newspaper Society luncheon, Miss Leung sought to reassure journalists that freedom of the press would be protected by a proposed law under Article 23 of the Basic Law, but unwittingly stirred controversy.
She was asked about the case of Ming Pao reporter Xi Yang, who in 1994 was jailed for stealing state secrets on the mainland after obtaining exclusive information from a Bank of China source.
Miss Leung said Xi had refused to reveal his sources to protect them and that the case had fallen under the category of stolen or unauthorised information.
She later sought to clarify her remarks, saying: 'Xi Yang's case was not handled by Hong Kong courts. I'm not saying that will happen in Hong Kong. I am not saying that it will be considered as theft if you refuse to disclose a source of information. It will be handled in accordance with Hong Kong law.
'Under the common law tradition, we have enough cases for judges to consider whether specific information [has] caused a damaging impact . . . they will not just listen to what the mainland courts say about whether the disclosure of information is damaging.'