No more disclosure... HKU granted confidentiality on contents of council meetings
Earlier leaked material shed light on controversial deliberations behind closed door discussions on the appointment of key managerial positions, including liberal scholar Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun.
The University of Hong Kong has been granted a permanent gag order to ban further disclosure of its confidential council meeting details on the appointment of liberal scholar Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun, who eventually lost his bid for a key managerial post.
The permanent High Court injunction was slapped on Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Company Limited, as well as “person or persons unknown” who appropriated, offered or are planning to offer for sale or publication, the confidential information from a series of university council meetings between June 30 and October 30 last year.
Contents from the meetings have already been partly disclosed in leaked audio recordings and transcripts of comments made by vice chancellor Peter Mathieson, now council chairman Arthur Li Kwok-cheung as well as members Leonie Ki Man-fung and Lo Chung-mau, among others.
But the order will exclude contents that are already in the public domain, including the recordings aired on Commercial Radio last October, and information divulged by then student union present Billy Fung Jing-en on September 29 last year.
The university said in a one-line statement that it “welcomes the decision of the court” while Fung told the Post that he respects the ruling, though he has yet to read the court document.