bodies, organizations of foreign nationals and concern groups. Many of these organizations have a long history. Some have a number of branches representing different trades and strata. Some are newly established organizations for the purpose of paying close attention to the community of Hong Kong and its future. The membership of these organizations ranges from less than 100 to a few thousand or more.
10. These organizations and community bodies prepared their submissions through different procedures. The most common procedure is as follows: A seminar, discussion or forum was held to collect members' views on the Basic Law (Draft) and the views were compiled into a written submission; or a written submission was drafted by a concern group or a permanent committee under the organization after some study, to be passed by the council, the executive committee, the standing committee or the general meeting of the organization. If a piece of opinion is submitted by a concern group or a group of members of an organization, the CCBL will process it as a submission from a group of individuals.
11. No organizations requested that their submissions be kept confidential. In order to help the Drafting Committee better understand these opinions, the CCBL when acknowledging receipt of their submissions also required the organizations to provide details in respect of their functions, objectives, memberships, and the procedures through which their submissions were prepared. Such details if provided promptly would be submitted to the Drafting Committee along with the consultation report. For organizations which had also submitted their opinions in the last round of consultations but which could not provide the above-mentioned information before the CCBL finished compiling the consultation report, the CCBL would present the information (if any) provided by those organizations in the previous consultation period and make a note specifying so.
Coverage by the Local Mass Media
12. The mass media in Hong Kong extensively covered matters concerning the Basic Law during the consultation period for the Basic Law (Draft), especially in the early stage just following the publication of the Basic Law (Draft), in April when the drafters visited Hong Kong, and near the end of the consultation period.
13. The local mass media form one of the important sources of opinions. During this consultation period, the CCBL collected 1,356 press reports of interviews, public speeches and discussions on matters concerning the Basic
25
