Hong Kong health authority pledged Saturday to further screen medical advertisement in the media to protect public health, denying any selective prosecution action on improper medical advertising.

Director of Health Dr. Lam Ping-yan said Hong Kong has already had the Undesirable Medical Advertisements Ordinance to protect public from any misleading medical advertisements.

In response to media inquiries concerning the ordinance, Dr. Lam said the Department of Health has a set of standard procedures to follow and no selective prosecution action had been taken in the past.

Lam said the department will issue a warning letter to the distributor of the product and publisher of the advertisement suspected to have contravened the ordinance.

"Only when the warning is ignored, the case will be referred to the police for investigation and prosecution action," he said.

In 2005, the department issued 4,117 warning letters, of which 77 cases involving 22 media organizations were referred to the police.

Source: Xinhua