Article 23 leaves IT sector feeling exposed

By issuing only a bare-bones outline of its proposed national security legislation, the government has only heightened the current sense of insecurity in the local information technology (IT) industry.

Although most concerns over the impending Article 23 legislation are focused on its effect on freedom of speech, the media and political and religious rights, its impact on the technology industry has been barely touched upon. In fact, the Blue Bill, as published before the Legislative Council last week, makes no mention of the harm the legislation could do to local telecom or Internet businesses.

One of the few people to have spoken up on the issue has been Sin Chung-kai, the democratic legislator representing the IT sector. Last year, Mr Sin warned that 'if there are areas where normal operations of IT business would be likely affected under the proposal, then the government has to communicate it very clearly and put in place adequate safeguards in law to allay our fears. Otherwise, not only will the new law pose a threat to the free flow of information in cyberspace, it also makes a further blow to the already sluggish IT industry'.

Well, you can forget about looking for adequate safeguards. From the sketchy information that can be gleaned from the proposal, it would appear that the government has completely ignored Mr Sin's warning. Perhaps it did not take him seriously? Mr Sin also warned that as the September 11 terrorists honed their flying skills with Microsoft's FlightSim, cyber cafes could become targets as potential terrorist breeding grounds. The prospect of computer-gamers being prosecuted for sedition is slight, but it remains a possibility that the proposals do not rule out. One thing Hong Kong does not need is a vision of mass police raids on local cyber cafes to pounce on young geeks suspected of playing potentially seditious games.

As Mr Sin observed, Article 23 legislation must address the concerns of the IT industry. But the proposals offer nothing but a huge, gaping pit of uncertainty.

What little we have seen of the National Security Bill completely ignores the Internet. It just does not exist.