An open letter to HK Chief Executive CY Leung

Foreign Correspondent's Club appeals against Companies Ordinance.

Hong Kong Business receives a letter from the groups' President, Douglas Wong; 1st Vice-President and 2nd Vice-President Tara Joseph and Francis Moriarty addressed to Chief Exec CY Leung.

The letter contains the following:

The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong, is concerned about and opposes a proposed change to the Companies Ordinance that will withhold details of the residential addresses and Identity Card/Passport numbers of company directors from public access.

Company searches are an important tool and source of information for investigative journalism and we regret that we were not invited to provide feedback on this change during a public consultation at the end of last year.

In your address to us last month you pledged to uphold the importance of a free and open media in Hong Kong and we believe that the ability of foreign correspondents and journalists to legally access information about individuals and their companies is vital to our role of reporting on issues of public interest.

We call on the government to withdraw this amendment and to maintain its support for the free flow of information in Hong Kong.