Take fast road to end search no-go

The Court of Final Appeal's judgment on former RTHK freelance producer Choy Yuk-ling's appeal was a landmark ruling closely associated with press freedom - and it was appropriate for Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu to hail it as a reflection of the city's fair judicial system and rule of law.

It would have been even fairer if the system and rule of law had been allowed to function at an early stage so that Choy would have been spared the lengthy and stressful legal procedure that many people would have been unable to afford to go through.

Toward this end, it is crucial for the system to start with clear and practical guidelines in full conformity with the spirit of the common law so that junior staff members of the concerned authorities would know what to do and what to avoid doing when enforcing the regulations.

Yesterday, Lee said the transport department would improve the procedures and guidelines for accessing vehicle records in accordance with the top court's ruling.

Restricted access to vehicle records is just the tip of the iceberg. Since Choy - better known by her nickname Bao Choy - was charged, found guilty and fined for "making false statements" two years ago, journalists' access to other similar important databases - including the land registry and company records - has also been unreasonably restricted.

The review should not be confined to vehicle registration searches but should also be extended to other search restrictions that are making bona-fide journalistic work very difficult.

As the chief executive spoke to the media before the Executive Council meeting, it was indicated that other government departments would also conduct similar reviews under the same spirit, which is welcome.

That being said, it is hoped that the promised review exercise can be completed quickly and lead to procedures that are streamlined and friendly for legitimate users.

It would be contrary to the Court of Final Appeal's view that freedom of the press and speech is constitutionally protected if the review concludes with procedures that would be troublesome to go through or, even worse, involve new administrative hurdles to overcome.

Authorities should be able to complete the review and reopen the various database search machines to journalists fairly quickly since it was a long-standing practice before Choy's bitter case.

The former freelance journalist was working for RTHK on a documentary about the "white-shirt" mob attack in Yuen Long on July 21, 2019, for which she applied to the Transport Department to obtain the records of vehicles reportedly involved in the incident.

Choy was found guilty and fined HK$6,000 for "making false statements" - an accusation the top court quashed unanimously on Monday.

In quashing the conviction, the Court of Final Appeal cited official figures that more than half of the 22,100 vehicle records issued for reasons other than vehicle sales were made by companies, of which about a quarter were media and news agencies.

The authorities are indeed very experienced in handling these search requests and there is absolutely no reason why the review cannot be completed quickly.