Message from the Director
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Recently there has been criticism from some Legislative Council and District Council members about the imposition of rules and systems for approving publicity materials for display on the notice boards in the common areas of our public housing estates. I wish to reiterate that our system is entirely legitimate. It is essential for an organisation as large as the Housing Department (HD) to establish a set of criteria for vetting publicity materials. It is also worth bearing in mind that the guidelines have been in place since 1999 and have been operating smoothly all along. |
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The primary objective of the HD in managing public housing estates is to provide a safe, clean and tranquil environment for our tenants. The aim of setting up notice boards in common areas in public housing estates is to provide a simple and convenient information platform through which Legislative Councillors, District Councillors, non-governmental organisations and resident associations may disseminate relevant information, especially those of welfare or service-providing in nature, to public housing residents. The guidelines are in place simply to help our colleagues to coordinate the display of publicity materials and to ensure a fair allocation of space available on the notice boards. The use of simple, fair and user-friendly guidelines helps protect our colleagues from accusation of favouritism or bias and avoid disputes amongst eligible parties. |
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To uphold the basic principle that publicity materials should not be used to criticise any individuals regardless of their position, we have further clarified the guidelines on the arrangements in 2011, making it clear to all front-line staff that publicity materials shall not carry any negative or derogatory remarks against individual persons or parties. This is in line with the original aim of setting up such notice boards to be a reliable source of information, and not something that should be used to criticise individual persons or parties; or worse, a channel through which individuals or parties criticise each others. |
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One of the criticisms is that our guidelines allow us to censor the content of publicity materials. I want to stress that we do not censor publicity materials. If it complies with the guidelines, the material will be posted. Since the guidelines are well understood by most people, it is very rare that publicity materials are not approved. In order to ensure consistency we have now put in place a system to allow front-line staff to refer to Housing Managers in the Headquarters for advice on difficult cases. Anyone who is dissatisfied with a decision may also seek to have the decision reviewed by staff at the Headquarters. |
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Our only objective is to provide a simple channel through which our tenants may seek and be given information of interest to them. Our simple guidelines help us to achieve that aim. |
D W Pescod |

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