‘Glory to Hong Kong’ protest song to be banned? Government files court injunction against promoting tune
- High Court asked to restrain ‘broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing song in any way’
- Injunction targets anyone inciting others to separate city from mainland China, commit a seditious act or insult national anthem
The High Court was on Tuesday processing an unprecedented application from the justice secretary for an injunction against “Glory to Hong Kong”, widely considered the unofficial anthem for the protests triggered by a now-shelved extradition bill.
The writ, filed a day earlier, asked the court to restrain those harbouring criminal intent from “broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing in any way” the anti-government tune.
The injunction targets anyone who intends to incite others to separate Hong Kong from mainland China, commit a seditious act or insult the national anthem “March of the Volunteers”.
The court order, if granted, would also prohibit anyone from playing the song in a manner that was likely to cause it “to be mistaken as the national anthem insofar as the [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region] is concerned”, or suggest the city “is an independent state and has a national anthem of her own”.
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The order would also cover “any adaptation of the song, the melody and/or lyrics of which are substantially the same as the song”.
People could also be found guilty of contempt of court for helping or knowingly allowing others to participate in any of the stipulated acts.
The court document listed YouTube videos of 32 versions of the protest song that could be found in breach of the intended injunction, including instrumental covers, as well as ones sung in Mandarin, English, German, Dutch, Japanese and Korean.
A hearing date has yet to be fixed.
Bar Association chairman Victor Dawes said the right balance needed to be struck between maintaining national security and protecting freedom of speech and that residents were entitled to know with clarity what sort of conduct would be prohibited if the order was granted.
A government statement said the legal move was to fulfil the constitutional responsibility to safeguard national security and preserve the national anthem’s dignity. It pointed to recent incidents where “Glory to Hong Kong” was repeatedly mistakenly presented as the city’s national anthem.
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“This has not only insulted the national anthem but also caused serious damage to the country and the HKSAR,” the statement said.
The statement also suggested the song was very likely to still be widely disseminated contrary to the national security law and local legislation.
It stressed Monday’s application pursued the legitimate aim of safeguarding national security and was “necessary, reasonable, legitimate, and consistent with the [Hong Kong] Bill of Rights”.
“In fact, the injunction complements existing laws and serves to clarify to members of the public that acts mentioned above may constitute criminal offences; they should not take their chances and attempt to break the law,” the statement added.
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Tik Chi-yuen, the city’s sole non-pro-establishment lawmaker, questioned the need to block the song with an injunction when the national security law was already in place, urging the government to explain if there were deficiencies and loopholes in the legislation to justify the application of an injunction.
“I see no social value in it, which instead will raise concerns about whether the government is increasingly restricting the freedom of speech and freedom of creation,” Tik said.
“Today a song is banned. Could it be a book tomorrow, and a banner the day after?”
Solicitor Kevin Yam Kin-fung, a former convenor of the now-disbanded Progressive Lawyers Group, argued that it “would not be difficult” for authorities to get an injunction in the absence of a defendant.
“In this prevailing political climate, who is still eager to come forward to argue against the continuation of the interlocutory injunction?” he said.
Barrister Ronny Tong Ka-wah, also a member of the city’s key decision-making Executive Council, dismissed claims the injunction would undermine Hong Kong’s free flow of information without censorship of content, saying all freedoms should have limits particularly when it came to the need to safeguard national security.
The Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau has since updated its webpage to allow people to directly download the correct tune.
The song gave rise to multiple secondary creations, including one with altered lyrics that denounce “rioters” in the 2019 protests.
Additional reporting by Kahon Chan and Natalie Wong
