After five consecutive days of deliberation, the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Sunday passed the Interception of Communications and Surveillance Bill, a new law to regulate phone tapping and other surveillance measures.

The 32-0 passage of the bill at about 2:20 a.m. Sunday ended the marathon debate which lasted for five months in the Legislative Council, which resumed second reading of the bill began Wednesday.

"With a rather improved supervision mechanism provided by the bill, the law now reaches a good balance between effective law enforcement and the protection of individual privacy," Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee Siu-Kwong said after the passage of the bill.

"And I must emphasize that this piece of legislation is very important to maintain the good law and order of Hong Kong," Lee said. "As everyone knows, interception of communications and covert surveillance are indispensable investigation facilities for law enforcement to safeguard public security, even in Western society."

He said, "The aim of the bill is to ensure the individual privacy and other human rights according to the Basic Law."

According to the bill, law enforcement sectors must get authorized license from a judge or higher officers before intercepting communications of crime suspects or terrorists and strictly abide by authorization clause during acting.

Meanwhile, the bill also stipulates that law enforcement's interception of suspects' communications and surveillance moves will be put under independent supervision together with interior review.

Lee said the law enforcement sectors would exercise surveillance only under "necessary and specific" circumstances, adding such moves would be subject to strict supervision.

The HKSAR government said it would soon finalize the follow-up actions like the gazette of the bill and departmental guidelines.

During the proceedings of the bill's legislation, the government has adopted many proposals from the legislators and all circles of the society and made relevant amendments to the bill before submitting to the Legislative Council.

Source: Xinhua