Hong Kong - Nearly half of Hong Kong people believe that media in the former British colony practice self-censorship to avoid upsetting China, according to a survey Wednesday.

The Hong Kong University study found that 47 per cent of people interviewed believed that self-censorship was rife in newspapers and magazines in the city of 7 million.

Two-thirds of the more than 1,000 interviewees said they believed the media in Hong Kong misused press freedom and only 30 per cent said they believed local media reporting was responsible.

Hong Kong - A verdict is to be handed down on April 29 in the trail of a computer technician accused of stealing photos that triggered a sex scandal in Hong Kong, a court announced Tuesday.

Sze Ho-chun, 24, allegedly downloaded explicit images from the laptop computer of singer-actor Edison Chen that showed Chen engaging in sex acts with a number of young starlets.

Hong Kong - Students and politicians in Hong Kong Tuesday hit out at comments by movie star Jackie Chan that Chinese people should be controlled and that too much freedom could harm China.

The Rush-Hour star sparked a growing controversy by saying at a business forum Saturday that freedoms had made Hong Kong and Taiwan "chaotic" and adding: "We Chinese need to be controlled."

Hong Kong - Hong Kong's unemployment rate has risen to a three-year high of 5.2 per cent as the economic slump takes its toll, according to government figures Monday.

The figure for the quarter running from January to March is 0.2 percentage points higher than the figure for the previous quarter from December 2008 to February.

Around 5,500 jobs were lost between the two quarters, according to government figures, with the biggest rises in joblessness recorded in the construction, transport, hospitality and financial sectors.

Hong Kong - Sixty companies in energy-hungry Hong Kong have signed up for a programme to promote low-carbon lifestyles, a environmental conference heard Monday.

The government-backed campaign run by environment activists the Climate Group aims to find ways to lower high-rise Hong Kong's carbon footprint, which is reckoned to be one of the world's biggest.

Speaking at the launch of the one-year campaign Monday, environment secretary Edward Yau appealed to businesses and individuals to help make it a success.