Internet Security

The second draft of Basic Law was issued in February 1989, and the revised draft of Article 23 read:

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any action of treason, secession, sedition or theft of state secrets.

The SAR government released the proposal to implement Article 23 in October 2002, and published the National Security (Legislative Provisions) Bill in Feb 2003. The final draft is more conservative and including additional language on political organizations:

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government, or theft of state secret, to prohibit foreign political organizations or bodies of the Region from establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies.

It has aroused wide concerns and criticism from different parties including politicians, legal, religious, educational and mass communication practitioners in view of its threat to freedom of speech. The vagueness of terms represent a potential threat. When put it into the context of Internet, the situation will be even more complicated. Under Clauses 2A, a person commits subversion if he: -

1. disestablish the basic system of the Republic of China as established by the Constitution of the Republic of China
2. overthrows the Central People's Government
3. intimidates the Central People's Government

by using force or serious criminal means that seriously endangers the stability of the People's Republic of China or engaging in wars.

The Hong Kong Journalist Association has showed concern on the definition of "serious criminal means" in their Submission to the Legislative Council. They have questioned that whether the launching of a massive e-mail campaign to government departments might be interpreted as seriously interfering with or disrupting an electronic system.

Under Clause 9C, a person will commit to sedition if he "publishes, sells, offer for sale, distribute or display any seditious publications." Apply this principle to online publications, the e-publisher may find liable to the law. Whether the e-Commerce websites on trading of books and magazines will be affected is still another question.