The Legislative Council's Home Affairs Panel would go ahead with its special meeting to discuss freedom of speech and the press even though two figures at the centre of the recent freedom controversy had refused to attend the meeting, panel chairman Ip Kwok-him said Monday.

Albert Cheng, former host of radio programme "Teacup in a Storm", and Raymond Wong, of "Close Encounters of the Political Kind", have both turned down an invitation by Ip to state their cases at the meeting, citing fears for personal safety.

Only Allen Lee has accepted the invitation. Lee quit "Teacup in a Storm" last week after taking up the host role from Cheng earlier this month.

"Whether they would come or not is a matter of their choice," Ip said. "While I respect their concern for personal safety highly, I am not clear what their concern is exactly. Are they referring to their safety inside LegCo or on their way to LegCo?"

Ip, a member of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, said that without knowing this, it would be impossible for him to assure them.

In his reply to Ip, Cheng said that although he welcomed the initiative taken by concerned panels of LegCo to look into the recent incidents, he found it regrettable that the panel had decided to summon him to the meeting without showing concern for his personal safety.

"With respect to the move by the concerned LegCo panels to look into the issue seriously, I would like to welcome it," Cheng wrote. "However, without (giving) assurances on safety and giving proper protection, the panel had obviously ignored (our) safety when it decided to summon (us) to the meeting. It is regrettable.

"I had been brutally attacked in the past because of my hosting of 'Teacup in a Storm'. I was almost killed in that case, and am still living in the shadow of it. Rather recently, my company was also vandalized because of my comments," he said.

He said the police were still investigating the incident.

He said Ip's invitation had landed him in a difficult position since the authority had not offered him proper protection, adding that he found it hard to attend the meeting.

Speaking at a press conference Monday, Ip clarified that the panel's invitation was not a summons.

Ip disclosed that Cheng had also sent them another letter on behalf of Wong to turn down the invitation, citing similar reasons as stated in Cheng's letter.

The letter said Wong did not mind attending the meeting but the panel had to assure him first of his personal safety.

Ip said the panel would go ahead with a special meeting on Thursday. Aside from Lee, Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs Stephen Fisher would also represent the government at the meeting.

On a separate occasion Monday, Lee said he had attempted to persuade Cheng to appear at the meeting but was told that he had showed some "concern".

Speaking at a luncheon meeting, Lee called on the central government to open a dialogue with the pro-democracy camp through which political differences could be overcome.

Meanwhile, LegCo's security panel will meet this morning on the same issue. Unlike his counterpart in the Home Affairs Panel, the security panel chairman James To, of the Democratic Party, has decided against inviting the talkshow hosts because of their safety concerns.

(China Daily HK Edition May 25, 2004)