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Proposal to restrict access to information in Hong Kong company registry sets alarm bells ringing for journalist groups
- Government proposal seeks to prevent people from accessing the personal particulars of company directors amid ‘increasing public awareness of the need to protect personal data’
- City’s largest journalists’ association demands immediate withdrawal of the plan, which it says will severely compromise press freedom
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Journalists have no privilege to access personal information, Hong Kong’s leader said on Tuesday, after media groups expressed concern that press freedom would be undermined by a government proposal to restrict public viewing of some data in the Companies Registry.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said the amended restriction was also needed to prevent the “weaponisation” of personal information, as well as false information and hate speech online.
The proposal, outlined in a Legislative Council paper, seeks to prevent people from accessing the personal particulars of company directors amid “increasing public awareness of the need to protect personal data”.
But the city’s largest journalists’ association on Monday demanded the immediate withdrawal of the proposal, submitted to the legislature by the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau along with the Companies Registry, as it feared the media would be denied access to information needed for investigative reporting.
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Personal information made available to the public in the registry includes the residential addresses and identification numbers of directors of registered businesses. Information on company secretaries and liquidators involved in the winding up of a business is also available.
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