### Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance 《淫褻及不雅物品管制條例》

16. Full hearing to be in public
(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), a full hearing shall be conducted in public.
(2) Where a Tribunal is of the opinion that the interests of public morality require that all or any persons should be excluded from a full hearing the presiding magistrate may direct that those persons be excluded accordingly; but the power conferred by this subsection shall not be exercised for the purpose of excluding any person who submitted the article, or any person who would have been entitled to submit it, under section 13 or his representative, or any bona fide reporter for any newspaper, magazine or radio or television station.
(3) A Tribunal may, whether or not it gives a direction under subsection (2), make an order forbidding the broadcasting, whether by radio or television, or other publication of any report or account of the whole or any part of any evidence adduced before it.

17. Reconsideration of article
(1) Subject to subsection (2), a Tribunal may of its own motion, or at the request of any person who submitted an article or of any person who would have been entitled to submit it under section 13, reconsider the classification of the article and may alter or confirm that classification.
(2) A Tribunal may refuse a request to reconsider the classification of any article submitted under section 13 if that article was classified within a period of 3 years prior to that submission.
(3) This Part shall apply to any motion or request to reconsider a classification as if such motion or request were a requirement for a full hearing under section 15.

18. Publisher etc. to give notice of classification
(1) The printer, manufacturer, publisher, distributor and importer of any article which is classified as a Class I or Class II article shall give notice in the prescribed manner of that classification and of any conditions imposed under section 8(2)(c) to any person to whom after that classification has taken effect he publishes more than 2 copies.
(2) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable to a fine of $200,000 and to imprisonment for 12 months.

### Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance 《淫褻及不雅物品管制條例》

19. Registrar to give notice
(1) The Registrar shall give notice in accordance with subsection (2)—
(aa) of any refusal of an application under section 8(2) in relation to an article that, in the opinion of a Tribunal, may be child pornography; (Added 31 of 2003 s. 23)
(a) of any interim classification;
(b) of any classification—
(i) made at a full hearing;
(ii) deemed to be the classification of a Tribunal under section 15(5); or
(iii) made following a reconsideration under section 17; and
(c) of any conditions imposed under section 8(2)(c).
(2) Notice under subsection (1) shall be given once each in an English language newspaper and a Chinese language newspaper published daily and circulating generally in Hong Kong.
(3) If notice in accordance with subsection (2) is published in the newspapers referred to in that subsection on different days, notice shall be deemed to have been given on the last of those days.
(4) The Registrar shall keep and maintain, in such form as he thinks fit, a register of notices given under this section.

20. Registrar to keep repository
(1) The Registrar shall keep and maintain, in such manner as he thinks fit, a repository for the keeping of articles submitted for classification under section 13.
(2) Except with the consent of a Tribunal all articles submitted for classification under section 13 shall be kept in the repository for a period of 5 years from the date on which it is classified and may thereafter be disposed of in accordance with the directions of the Registrar.

### Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance 《淫褻及不雅物品管制條例》

21. Prohibition on publishing obscene articles
(1) Subject to subsection (2) any person who—
(a) publishes;
(b) possesses for the purpose of publication; or
(c) imports for the purpose of publication,
any obscene article, whether or not he knows that it is an obscene article, commits an offence and is liable to a fine of $1,000,000 and to imprisonment for 3 years.
(2) It shall be a defence to a charge—
(a) under subsection (1) for a defendant to prove that, at the time the offence is alleged to have been committed, the article the subject of the charge was classified as a Class III article; but he may be convicted of any other offence under this Part established by the evidence as if he had been charged with that other offence;
(b) under subsection (1) for a defendant to prove that the article the subject of the charge is, or was at the time the offence is alleged to have been committed, classified as a Class I or a Class II article;
(c) under subsection (1) (b) or (c) for a defendant to prove that, at the time the offence is alleged to have been committed, the article the subject of the charge was possessed or imported— (Amended 80 of 1997 s.102)
(i) by him for the purpose of submitting it, a copy thereof or a print therefrom to the Registrar under section 13; or (Amended 80 of 1997 s. 102)
(ii) by a person licensed under the Broadcasting Ordinance (Cap. 562) for the purpose of submitting it under that Ordinance for provision under that Ordinance; (Replaced 48 of 2000 s. 44)
(d) under subsection (1)(b) for a defendant to prove that, at the time that offence is alleged to have been committed, he—
(i) had had no reasonable opportunity to inspect the article the subject of the charge; and
(ii) had reasonable grounds for believing that article was not obscene; and
(e) under subsection (1) (c) for a defendant to prove that, at the time that offence is alleged to have been committed, he had reasonable grounds for believing that the article the subject of the charge was not obscene.

### Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance 《淫褻及不雅物品管制條例》

22. Prohibition on publishing an indecent article to a juvenile
(1) Subject to subsection (2), any person who publishes any indecent article to a person who is a juvenile, whether or not he knows that it is an indecent article or that such person is a juvenile, commits an offence and is liable to a fine of $400,000 and to imprisonment for 12 months on his first conviction, and to a fine of $800,000 and to imprisonment for 12 months on a second or subsequent conviction. (Amended 73 of 1995 s. 6)
(2) It shall be a defence to a charge under this section to prove that—
(a) the article the subject of the charge is, or was at the time that the offence is alleged to have been committed, classified as a Class I article;
(b) at the time that the offence is alleged to have been committed, the person so charged inspected an identity card or passport purporting to be the identity card or passport of the juvenile and believed on reasonable grounds that the juvenile was not a juvenile; or
(c) the indecent article was published in compliance with conditions relating to its publication imposed by a Tribunal under section 8(2)(c).

23. Prohibition on display of indecent matter
(1) If any indecent matter is publicly displayed the person making the display and any person causing or permitting the display to be made, whether or not he knows that the matter is indecent, commits an offence and is liable to a fine of $400,000 and to imprisonment for 12 months on his first conviction, and to a fine of $800,000 and to imprisonment for 12 months on a second or subsequent conviction. (Amended 73 of 1995 s. 7)
(2) Nothing in this section shall apply in relation to any matter—
(a) included in a television programme service provided by a company licensed under the Broadcasting Ordinance (Cap. 562); or (Replaced 48 of 2000 s. 44)
(b) included in the display of an article in a bona fide art gallery or museum and visible only from within that gallery or museum.
[cf. 1981 c. 42 s. 1 U.K.]