Pan-democrats win appeal against convictions in Citizens' Radio case
Top court sides with activists after a four-year battle over the rights and wrongs of taking part in an illegal broadcast by Citizens' Radio in 2008
Five prominent pan-democrats yesterday won their appeal against a conviction for speaking on an unlicensed radio station.
Four of the five judges on a Court of Final Appeal panel ruled in favour of lawmakers Wong Yuk-man, Emily Lau Wai-hing, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Chan Wai-yip, and former lawmaker Lee Wing-tat.
The pan-democrats were prosecuted after speaking as guests on a Citizens' Radio discussion in Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Mong Kok, on April 20, 2008. Chief Magistrate Tong Man convicted and fined the five in 2009 under a section of the Telecommunications Ordinance that prohibits delivering any message for transmission by an unlawful telecommunications system.
Johnny Mok SC, for the government, said during the appeal hearing that the term "delivers any message" could be applied to any person who spoke into a microphone.
But Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li wrote in his judgment: "It seems unlikely that the legislature would have intended the criminalisation of the act of delivering a message to a piece of electronic equipment, rather than to a person."
However, the court did not address the constitutionality of the 75-year-old ordinance even though this had been challenged by the appellants.