HKU POP SITE releases the latest results on the four subjective freedom indicatorsBack

The Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong today releases on schedule via the "HKU POP SITE" (http://hkupop.pori.hk) the latest results on the four subjective freedom indicators. POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday at 2 pm via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time with a forecast of the items to be released in the forthcoming week. We will review and adjust this operation regularly.

According to this schedule, the date and time of our next release will be October 29, 2002, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest rating of CE Tung Chee-hwa, people's satisfaction with the HKSAR Government, as well as their trust in the HKSAR and Beijing Central Governments will be released. We will also release the latest findings from a series of questions related to the rule of law in Hong Kong.

According to the latest (October 2-7) findings released today, of the four subjective indicators on Hong Kong's freedom of "speech", "press", "publication" and "procession and demonstration", on a scale of 0-10, "publication" freedom scored the highest rating of 7.12 marks. "Press" and "speech" freedoms scored 7.05 and 6.94 marks respectively while that of "procession and demonstration" scored 6.13 marks. Compared with the results obtained in mid-July, all ratings have dropped significantly, with "procession and demonstration" having the biggest drop of 0.62 mark. "Speech" and "publication" have also dropped by 0.43 and 0.42 marks respectively, while a drop of 0.31 mark was registered for "press" freedom.

The new survey reported in the POP Site today is a random telephone survey conducted by interviewers, targeting at Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong of age 18 or above. The sample size of the survey is over 1,000 respondents. At 95% confidence level, the sampling error of the four freedom indicators is less than plus/minus 0.14 mark. That means if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified. Shall anyone have any question regarding the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site, members of the POP Team will be happy to answer them, but we will not comment on the findings at this stage. Such an arrangement would be reviewed when more resources are available. Please note that Dr CHUNG Ting-yiu Robert, Director of Public Opinion Programme, is solely responsible for the work published in the POP Site, which does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong.