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The following is the transcript of a media session given by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, after officiating at the Opening Ceremony of the exhibition on "Sustainable Development for the 21st Century" at Pacific Place this (Monday) morning:-

Mr Tung: Last week I was in Yunnan province for five days, holiday. I visited the city by the name of "Lijiang". When I came back to Hong Kong it so happened that there was a weekend, so I took the weekend off in Fanling and I am now totally rested and ready to start my work again. Have you been to Lijiang? It's a beautiful place. It's a city which is declared by United Nation as a City of Heritage. It has got eight hundred years of culture and civilisation protected by the authorities. It got some beautiful snowcap mountain ranges which levels any such sights in the world. Unless you have been there, you can never appreciate how beautiful the place is and I would suggest that you should really like to visit this place. I just had the opportunity of officiating at the opening ceremony of the stage II public consultation on sustainable development in Hong Kong for the 21st century. Let me say this, sustainable development, protection of environment, is really the responsibility of every citizen. Government has set some very ambitious goals that I can assure you the Government have every determination and all the resources at its disposal to fulfill our objective. So with that I am ready to answer a few questions.

Reporter: You've been accused of not being very firm about freedom of speech, particularly the freedom of expression within RTHK. How will you address concerns that the removal of Cheung Man-yee is a gradual step towards toning down RTHK?

Mr Tung: Well. Let me say this. Miss Cheung Man-yee is a very senior and capable civil servant. She's made major contributions to the work of RTHK. One of her strength-she has many strengths-is in promotion and the ability to communicate with people. Japan is a very important trading partner for us, especially now that the Asian economy is recovering and the Japanese economy is recovering. And it so happened that the post became open. And the Posting Board, after very careful consideration, made that decision to ask Miss Cheung to take on this post which itself is a promotion. Secondly, Miss Cheung had made known before that she was interested in overseas posting. And thirdly, I think it is also fair to others. You know that this particular post in RTHK can be taken over by others. After all, 13 years is a long time. How long have you been at your job?

Reporter: About 13 years.

Mr Tung: You've been there at the job 13 years already. You don't look that old. Let me also emphasize to you that freedom of speech and freedom of expression is the very foundation of Hong Kong Government's policy. It is also so stated in the Basic Law and is something we are very determined to protect. Editorial independence of RTHK is also a very fundamental policy of this Government. These will not change because the change of one person. You will see all continue. So, yes, I know there are lot of speculations about how do I ensure the future. I think you stay here long enough. We will prove you're wrong.

Reporter: What do you mean by "slowly, slowly" when you told Xu Simin...?

Mr Tung: I don't know who said slowly, slowly.

Chief Executive's transcript (Chinese part)

End/Monday, October 25, 1999

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