Yesterday the three victims arrived at the PCPD office at 3pm and were greeted by nearly 500 reporters. Police officers were at the scene as well to keep everyone in order. Each victim was asked to provide an oral statement on the case and this lasted until 5pm. A PCPD member (Mr. Chiang) accepted interviews from the media, confirming the complaints were made and the investigation will begin. The case involves three artists who had photos taken of them in the privacy of their own homes and they were completely unaware of the fact. The evidence show the action of collecting personal information by unfair means violates the Personal Data Ordinance Schedule 1, Section 2 or simply 1(2) Principle. PCPD will conduct the investigation according to article 38 and the complaints. When the investigation completes, if there is a discovery of the violation, the Commissioner has the right to serve notice to the illegal user and order the user to take steps to correct the violation. If the user does not comply with the notice, it constitutes to a criminal offense.
Mr. Chiang expressed the Office does not have the authority to execute a penalty or ask for a compensation from the responsible party. As to the question of how to balance protection of privacy and freedom of press, Mr. Chiang expressed the Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong sought public view, in which the problem is highlighted in this incident. There should be further public consultation in order to seek public consensus and strengthen the supervision. Asked if this is the first time there are artists complaining on the press reports? He expressed that all complaints are confidential and will not be made public, therefore he cannot comment.
Later, Vincent, Yoyo, Bosco and Virgina were interviewed together. Virgina expressed a lawyer sent a letter to the magazines earlier asking them to hand over the photos. She also praises the three artists' courage to face this incident. As if they will accept the Commissioner's suggestion and ask for a compensation from the magazines? Bosco said: "Today, we are here in the PCPD to declare our position. We will talk about what type of methods to take action later or this incident that happened to me may not be a big deal to everyone, but I am also a citizen myself, I hope citizens' protection of privacy can be confronted. (Are you worried the complaint might be useless in the end?) The Commissioner told me based on the circumstances, the issue is looking positive, I really hope to see legislation as soon as possible." Vincent frankly expressed he came here to express his opinion on the injustice: "I respect freedom of press, but I also hope artists have their privacy rights in their own homes."
Accompanying the three victims, HK Performing Artists Guild representative, Astrid Chan had to leave early due to work, but the lawyer followed up with the case. Astrid emphasizes this time the Performing Artists Guild is only trying to take the first step in defending artists' privacy: "We do not just directing the issue towards the few TVB artist victims, but also to other artists, like Fiona Sit and Anthony Wong's daughter. Their cases, we also hope to follow up on. We hope that the incident can become a precedent. If we can successfully file a lawsuit, we hope the government can write up an amendment and authorize the PCPD to amend the regulations, so the victims can all become tigers with teeth again."
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