Tapes, photos and meeting arrangements made via WhatsApp should all fall under proposed archives law, former Hong Kong official says
- Ex-government records director Simon Chu highlights lack of official files on informal consultations during controversial Wang Chau housing project
Informal consultations held by the authorities and meeting arrangements made via instant messaging apps are some of the items that should be put on the record if Hong Kong passes an archives law, a former government records official said on Friday.
The remarks by Simon Chu Fook-keung, an ex-director at the Government Records Service (GRS), came a day after the Law Reform Commission called for legislation to protect public records and archives, as well as the public’s right to gain access to them.
“[An archives law] stipulates that records should be set up when it is a business matter. Soft lobbying is also official business,” he said on a radio show.
Citing informal discussions with rural leaders that took place over a controversial public housing project in Wang Chau as an example, Chu highlighted how then housing minister Anthony Cheung Bing-leung had told the media in 2016 that there was no official record of the soft lobbying.
With such legislation in place, Chu said, reporters would have been able to ask why no files had been set up. This would exert pressure for supervision. Keeping records could help reflect the accountability of civil servants, he added.