- Junior Police Officers’ Association says urgency needed to prevent wider public release of personal information of 4.1 million voters
- Groups says posting the data would expose voters to the same online harassment faced by police officers and their families
An injunction to shield voter registers from public view will remain in place until after the district council elections, as Hong Kong's largest police group seeks to make the temporary ban permanent.
The Court of First Instance on Wednesday scheduled a hearing on the matter for December 16 " three weeks after the district council polls on November 24. The court will, at that time, hear the judicial review application filed by the Junior Police Officers' Association, which had the interim injunction granted by the Court of Appeal on Tuesday.
At the hearing on Wednesday before Mr Justice Anderson Chow Ka-ming, the association applied to expedite the case by arranging another hearing this month. The ban applies to Hong Kong's provisional voter register and the final version.
Abraham Chan Lok-shung SC, for the police association, said urgency was necessary to prevent the wider public release of the personal information of 4.1 million voters. Chan said posting this data would expose voters to the same threat of doxxing " online harassment based on personal details " faced by police officers and their families.
Government lawyer Raymond Leung Wai-man SC said further disruption to the present election process might subject the results to legal challenges. Leung said unsuccessful candidates might claim the ban on public access to voter registers made the election unfair.
Under the order by the High Court, the electoral authority shall not publish or make available for public inspection the voter register, or convey to members of the public any information that would expose any connection between voters' names with their home addresses.
The order does not apply to validated candidates, who still have access to the register.
In his ruling, Chow found no need for an expedited second hearing at this stage. He said the association had no evidence that police officers had been doxxed because their personal data in the voters' register has been leaked.
Chow expressed concern that "extraordinary" progress in the current case would prejudice the public interest. He said the court must allow time for the public, including the media and journalists' associations, to consider taking part in the proceedings despite a lack of public interest so far.
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He said he had yet to come up with any opinion regarding the substantive judicial review. Even if he had formed one, he said, his judgment might be subject to appeals at the higher courts and the case would not be settled in time for the district council elections.
The court, meanwhile, granted a person associated with the police group to take part in the proceedings after neither party raised an objection.
Chan explained that the application was a safeguard after the higher court raised concerns that the association might not be an appropriate body to apply for judicial review.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association, the city's largest union for media workers, issued a statement expressing concern that the interim injunction might jeopardise the fairness and transparency of the upcoming district elections.
In the past, we have seen media reports uncovering election scandals such as vote riggingChris Yeung, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association
The association's chairman, Chris Yeung Kin-hing, said the group was seeking legal advice on how to follow up the case, including the option of applying to join the injunction process as an interested party.
He said he was worried that more public registers, such as land and company registers, would be subjected to similar bans in the future.
The association said the media had uncovered vote-rigging schemes by inspecting voter registers and the temporary ban would hinder the reporting of corrupt election tactics.
"In the past, we have seen media reports uncovering election scandals such as vote rigging," Yeung said.
Yeung added that the source of personal details in the police doxxing cases had come from many other channels, including social media.
Additional reporting by Karen Zhang
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