May 13, 2016 (South China Morning Post) — The Department of Justice has warned it will prosecute media outlets that run reports of bail negotiations and defendants’ criminal records, despite dropping charges against two local Chinese papers over an alleged contravention. It also made clear in a statement the importance of banning such reports to prevent prejudicing members of public who could be potential jurors. This came after...
Read MoreSeptember 25, 2015 (RTHK) — Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma has highlighted the importance of an independent judiciary, and the need to maintain the rule of law in Hong Kong, during a high-profile ceremony to mark the opening of the new Court of Final Appeal Building. Ma said one of the principal themes of the Basic Law is the maintenance and continuation of institutions such as the rule of law, that he said “provides the social...
Read MoreSept 16, 2015 (RTHK) — The Court of First Instance has fined Apple Daily and Sharp Daily newspapers, as well as two of their former chief editors, for contempt of court over the publication of an interview with a man who was awaiting trial for murdering his parents. Apple Daily’s former chief editor, Cheung Kim-hung, was fined HK$90,000 while the newspaper itself was fined HK$250,000. The now-defunct Sharp Daily and its...
Read MoreApril 24, 2015 — A court has ruled that it was unlawful for the Chief Executive C.Y. Leung and his cabinet to deny a free-to-air licence to Hong Kong Television Network. The court has ordered the Executive Council to reconsider its October 2013 decision which sparked street protests by HKTV supporters and prompted the telecoms veteran to seek a judicial review. In a written judgment, Mr Justice Thomas Au ruled that when the...
Read MoreA recent double murder case may prove to be an important test of Hong Kong’s restrictive laws on what can or cannot be reported on in a pending court case in the internet age. “Hong Kong inherited the UK’s more restrictive approach,” Doreen Weisenhaus told The South China Morning Post in a November 4, 2014 article. “The presumption is that too much public information about the case would jeopardise a...
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