Thank you for your supplementary enquiry on whether there is any statement issued by us on the sharing of the website (hkleaks.ru) by Chinese state media.
In general terms, section 64(4)(d) of the Ordinance provides a statutory defence in the circumstances where the disclosure of personal data was made for the purpose of a news activity and doing so was in public interest. The burden of proving such statutory defence rests on the news organization.
It therefore follows that, prima facie, the Ordinance provides statutory exemptions which any media, as a data user, may trigger under which certain data protection principles and provisions of the Ordinance can be exempted, assuming that the Ordinance has jurisdictional effect on this data user.
Further, the Ordinance does not have express provisions providing for extra-territorial effect. Data user outside the jurisdiction of Hong Kong is not regulated by the Ordinance.
On the above basis, we have not issued a statement on the sharing of the website (hkleaks.ru) by the Chinese state media.