A Hong Kong press group has sought to challenge the revised rules for accessing the government’s vehicle registry. The arrangements rolled out in January constituted a “disproportionate and unjustified restriction” on press freedom enshrined in the city’s mini-constitution, the group argued.
The requirement for journalists to seek approval directly from the transport commissioner to access vehicle records should be declared unconstitutional, the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) said in an application for leave to apply for judicial review last Friday.
Judicial reviews are considered by the Court of First Instance and examine the decision-making processes of administrative bodies. Issues under review must be shown to affect the wider public interest.
New rules
The legal challenge came almost three months after the Transport Department changed the application process to review vehicle owners’ information on the registry without prior public consultation.
The registry contains information about registered vehicles and the full name, residential or corporate address, and identity document of their owner. Access to such information was “instrumental” to the press, HKJA said, citing previous investigative reports which uncovered misconduct in public office and corruption scandals.
According to the new rules, members of the press are required to submit a written application via the “public interest route.” They have to provide “adequate and detailed justifications” and supporting documents, while the applicant’s personal information would be disclosed to the vehicle owner if a certificate to viewing their records was granted.
‘Unreasonable’
Citing news reports and applicants’ enquiries, the HKJA said it had been “extremely difficult” for journalists to obtain a certificate to access the registry. Media organisations including HK01, Ming Pao, Now and The Collective had sought access, but as of March 27, no application from the press had been approved, HKJA said.
The press group argued that the policy was in breach of the constitutional rights guaranteed under the Basic Law and the Bill of Rights by requiring the applicant to disclose personal information to the vehicle owner with no exception for confidentiality “inherent in investigative journalism.”
“The policy is unreasonable in the public law sense, under heightened scrutiny, due to its irrational treatment of journalists’ applications and the unjustifiable inconsistencies in the Policy,” the HKJA wrote its application.
“[T]he Policy is a continuing act and has serious and continuing implications for journalistic freedom, for the freedom of all Hong Kong residents to gather, receive and import information,” the court document read.
Commissioner for Transport Angela Lee said in January that the amendment was made in light of a Court of Final Appeal ruling involving investigative journalist Bao Choy. Last June, the top court quashed Choy’s conviction over making false statements to access the vehicle registry for an investigation into the Yuen Long mob attack during the 2019 protests and unrest.
The government hit back at the HKJA in January, after the press group raised concerns that the new arrangement would hamper reporting and could compromise sources. The accusation that the authorities made a “false interpretation” of the top court’s ruling on Choy was “false,” the Transport Department said.
HKJA wrote in the application last Friday that it was not objecting to the lawful strengthening of the application process and regulatory framework for access to the registry. But the transport commissioner could not put forward a policy that “unlawfully restricted” access to the vehicle records. The officials also could not impose “unreasonable, irrational or justifiable obstacles” to the press in carrying out its role as a public watch dog, the group said.
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