Chief Executive John Lee says planned national security laws under Article 23 of the Basic Law will tackle spying, including by organisations set up by foreign agents, or any masquerading as media outlets.

In an interview with the Commercial Daily newspaper on Tuesday, Lee said Hong Kong still has people pretending to be journalists and putting out fake news.

The CE said a first draft of Article 23 legislation had already been compiled before the unrest of 2019, but he asked the Security Bureau to take another look at it after seeing how external forces tried to interfere in Hong Kong affairs.

“How should we manage organisations that we believe would endanger national security? Sometimes after we prosecute them, they’d pack up and leave. But in the next stage, it would be even better if we can build a firewall, so they won’t think of coming here in the first place,” he said.

Lee said he hopes Article 23 legislation can be enacted this year, or next year at the latest.

The CE also said authorities are studying how to deal with fake news.

He said he hopes media organisations will regulate themselves, but special attention has to be paid to fake news that threatens national security.

Lee added that since Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong, the media has become more professional in general, but there are still fake journalists at large, putting out disinformation for political or personal gain.

As for Hong Kong’s anti-epidemic measures, Lee said he is hoping to lift all Covid restrictions within this year, including mandatory mask-wearing.

He says it’s always been his goal to resume normalcy, but authorities have to take into account different data, including the capacity of Hong Kong’s healthcare system.

University of Hong Kong infectious disease expert Ivan Hung said Lee's time frame is realistic.

Hung, who's also a government adviser, said authorities can consider scrapping isolation orders after the Lunar New Year, if there is no rebound in cases, and removing the mask-wearing mandate in March.

“In Hong Kong we have a very, very robust hybrid immunity, due to a very high vaccination rate and also infection rate. And also, the Omicron variant of Covid is very much now a flu-like illness, that’s why this easing of all the infection-control measures will very much be feasible within a very short period of time,” he said.

Hung said he doesn’t expect a surge in infections after all Covid rules are lifted, because of the immunity in the community.