2. The Judiciary Administrator (JA) proposes to create one permanent post of Magistrate in order to establish one more court in the Obscene Articles Tribunal to cope with the increasing workload.

3. The establishment of the Obscene Articles Tribunal (OAT), comprising one Magistrate and four supporting staff, has remained the same since its establishment in September 1987. However, the number of cases handled by the Tribunal has increased substantially since then, as reflected in Enclosure 1. In 1988-89 the number of applications for classification, i.e. those submitted to the Trubunal by the public, was 650. The number in 1995-96 has increased to 1841, representing an increase of 183%. The total number of articles determined, i.e. those referred to the Tribunal by a court or magistrate, has risen by nearly 13 times from 845 in 1988-89 to 10 866 in 1995-96. Moreover, under the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance (Cap. 390), the Tribunal needs to make an interim classification within five days of the submission of an article. Though the presiding magistrate may extend this by another five days under the Ordinance, this is still a tight timeframe given the Tribunal's workload.

4. In July 1995, the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles (Amendment) Ordinance was enacted to address community concern regarding how obscene and indecent articles should best be regulated, taking into account the need to protect public morality, decency and propriety. The Ordinance also aims to make the OAT operations more transparent and its classifications more readily understood by the community. To this ends, we have, since 31 August 1995, increased the minimum number of adjudicators from two to four at full hearings to determine articles, to review the interim classification of articles or to reconsider previously classified articles.

5. Another important measure provided for in the Amendment Ordinance but which we have yet to implement is for OAT to identify at both interim and full hearings the offending part or parts of an article which give rise to an "obscene" or "indecent" classification. As the then Secretary for Recreation and Culture has said when moving the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles (Amendment) Bill 1995, the implementation of this measure requires additional resources. Based on data on the workload of the OAT, Secretary for Broadcasting, Culture and Sport (SBCS) and JA both find the proposed creation of an additional post of Magistrate necessary for the purpose.

6. In the past three years, the Tribunal processed an average of 11 675 articles annually for classification or determination. Normally, an identification or determination would require around 15 minutes to complete. SBCS and JA estimate that when the new provision referrred to in paragraph 5 becomes effective, the time required would be at least doubled as another 15 minutes or more would probably be required per article for scan-viewing, locating and recording the offending part or parts, if present, in an article. Therefore, commencing operation of the provision of the Amendment Ordinance without first creating the proposed Magistrate post to enable two courts of the Tribunal to be held concurrently would severely affect the effectiveness of the OAT.

The proposed duty list of the Presiding Magistrate is at Enclosure 2. An organisation chart showing the existing and proposed structure of the Judiciary is at Enclosure 3.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

7. The additional notional annual salary cost of this proposal at
mid-point is -

	$	No of Post
New permanent post	965,400	1

8. The full annual average staff cost of the proposal, including salaries and staff on-costs, is $1,827,336.

9. In addition, this proposal will necessitate the creation of two additional non-directorate posts, comprising one Clerical Officer II and one Office Assistant, at a notional annual mid-point salary cost of $252,180 and a full annual average staff cost of $409,308. These two posts will provide the necessary support to the operation of the second court of the Tribunal to be chaired by the proposed Magistrate post.

10. We have included sufficient provision in the 1996-97 Estimates to meet the cost of this proposal.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

11. The OAT was established in 1987 under the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance. Its principal functions are -

in respect of any article or any matter publicly displayed referred to it by a court or Magistrate, to determine whether -
1. the article is obscene or indecent;
2. the matter is indecent; or
3. the ground of defence (i.e. that the publication of an article or the public display of a matter have been intended for the public good) to a charge under the Ordinance is proved;
to accord classification on articles submitted by private parties (e.g. a publisher or an author) or authorised public officers.

12. Recently there has been great public interest in trying to forestall as far as possible access by juvenile to indecent and obscene articles. There is also great public demand to make the operation of the OAT more transparent and its classifications more readily understood. At the same time, the publication industry has also expressed concern about the lack of clarity as to the basis on which articles are classified into different categories. To address public concern in this regard is the rationale behind the measures introduced under the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles (Amendment) Ordinance. Failure to provide an additional Magistrate will affect the implementation of the legislative amendments. It would also undermine public confidence in the Government's commitment to protecting public morality, decency and propriety.

CIVIL SERVICE BRANCH COMMENTS

13. The Civil Service Branch considers the ranking and grading of the proposed new post appropriate having regard to its duties and level of responsibilities.

RECOMMENDATION OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON JUDICIAL SALARIES AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

14. The Standing Committee on Judicial Salaries and Conditions of Service has advised that the grading proposed for the post would be appropriate if the post were to be created.

Judiciary
June 1996
(E4789/WIN80)

Enclosure 1 to EC (96-97)30

Cases Processed by the Obscene Article Tribunal

Period	Number of Cases filed	Number of Submissions classified	Number of Articles determined	Number of Cases Reviewed	Number of Cases reconsidered	Number of Appeal Cases
Sept. 87 - Mar. 88 (7 months)	914	428	135	5	-	-
April 88 - Mar 89	1 493	650	845	6	-	1
April 89 - Mar. 90	1 659	659	977	13	-	-
April 90 - Mar. 91	1 883	864	999	5	-	-
April 91 - Mar. 92	5 540	1 118	4 379	31	5	2
April 92 - Mar. 93	6 585	752	5 820	21	6	1
April 93 - Mar. 94	11 919	1 463	10 406	22	2	6
April 94 - Mar. 95	10 675	2 248	8 201	19	19	2
April 95 - Mar. 96	12 780	1 841	10 866	31	11	7

Enclosure 2 to EC(96-97)30

Proposed Duty List of Presiding Magistrate, Obscene Articles Tribunal

The main duties comprise the following -

in respect of any article or any matter publicly displayed referred to it by a court or a Magistrate, to determine, in conjunction with an appropriate number of adjudicators, whether :
1. the article is obscene or indecent;
2. the matter is indecent; or
3. the ground of defence (i.e. that the publication of an article or the public display of a matter have been intended for the public good) to a charge under the Ordinance is proved;
to make interim classification, with an appropriate number of adjudicators in chambers, of articles submitted to the Obscene Articles Tribunal for classification as obscene or indecent or neither obscene nor indecent;
to review interim classifications at a full hearing;
to reconsider under certain circumstances a previous classification;
to identify, at interim or full hearings, the part or parts of the article which causes the obscenity or indecency;
to determine any point of law arising during any proceedings before a Tribunal; and
to be responsible for the administration of the Obscene Articles Tribunal.

Enclosure 3 to EC(96-97)30

ORGANISATION CHART OF THE JUDICIARY

Warning : The chart is quite large and may take some time to download.

Last Updated on 3 December 1998

ITEM FOR ESTABLISHMENT SUBCOMMITTEE OF FINANCE COMMITTEE

HEAD 80 - JUDICIARY Subhead 001 Salaries

ITEM FOR ESTABLISHMENT SUBCOMMITTEE
OF FINANCE COMMITTEE

HEAD 80 - JUDICIARY
Subhead 001 Salaries