CY loses court bid to name unprofessional teachers

A group founded by former chief executive CY Leung on Tuesday lost a High Court bid to make the government publicise details of teachers found to have committed professional misconduct.

Leung filed the judicial review through the 803 Funds group, arguing that it’s in the public interest to reveal the names of the schools and teachers involved in misconduct cases.

The former CE initiated the case after some teachers were accused of using inappropriate teaching materials, making improper social media messages or disorderly conduct in public, during the 2019 protests.

But judge Anderson Chow rejected all the grounds put forward by the fund’s lawyers and ruled in favour of the Education Bureau.

Chow said officials didn’t make any legal mistakes in refusing to disclose the teachers’ details.

“I consider it to be clear that the relevant information, relating to matters of personnel, professional misconduct and discipline, was provided by [the complainants, teachers and schools] under an implicit understanding that it would not be further disclosed to any third party outside the complaint/disciplinary process,” the judge wrote in his ruling.

Chow said the applicant didn’t have to pay the legal costs for this case because it was reasonably arguable and the judicial review was apparently applied with public interest, rather than private interest, in mind.