Hong Kong government announced on Tuesday a series of draft amendments to the National Security (Legislative Provisions) Bill, after consulting the Bills Committee and concerned parties.
The National Security (Legislative Provisions) Bill, which implements Article 23 of the Basic Law, was introduced into the Legislative Council in February 2003 after a thorough three-month public consultation period.
According to the spokesman for the government, the major latest amendments are: extending guarantees of rights and freedoms, further tightening of sedition offenses, removing overlap between proscription mechanisms, proposing special procedures for appeals against proscription and proposing a three-year prosecution time limit for seditious publications.
"We believe the bill and the amendments have struck a balance between the need to protect national security and the need to safeguard human rights," the government spokesman said.
"We hope that the Bills Committee would scrutinize the proposed amendments and support the enactment of the legislation within this legislative year," he added.
(Xinhua News Agency Jun 4, 2003)
