Hong Kong court postpones hearing government’s bid to ban ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ protest song to allow any objectors time to prepare challenge
- High Court delays case until July 21 to allow anyone wishing to defend song a chance to prepare for litigation
- Justice secretary Paul Lam files unprecedented bid for injunction to permanently bar anyone from promoting tune
Mr Justice Wilson Chan Ka-shun ordered that the court documents in the case should be made public before the next sitting.
He said he would be surprised if the respondents referred to by the proposed injunction were not given a chance to contest the ban before it came into force.
Chan also asked the justice department to clarify its stance on the intended scope of the injunction. He explained he had concerns that the terms of the original application might not cover those the government intended to penalise.
Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok filed the unprecedented legal bid last week looking to prohibit anyone with criminal intent from promoting the song through “broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing in any way”.
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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 [the city] is concerned”, or suggest Hong Kong “is an independent state and has a national anthem of her own”.
The writ defined the respondents as people “conducting themselves in any of the acts prohibited under … the indorsement of claim”.
Chan said that description appeared to overlook those who had never promoted the song but committed acts in breach of the injunction after it took effect.
He also questioned whether the injunction would be equivalent to a blanket ban on the song.
“The injunction appears to aim to prohibit anyone from broadcasting the song. It doesn’t seem to be the intention of the plaintiff. The intention is not to include the whole world,” the judge said.
‘Glory to Hong Kong’ protest song to be banned? Government files court injunction
Government counsel said the ban would not target “the world at large” but only those “conducting the prohibited acts now and intending to conduct such acts”.
The government side added the ban was also intended to cover people who had never promoted the tune before and those who failed to stop doing so after the ban started.
Copies of the injunction application will be made accessible on government web pages, the justice department and police.
The webpages will contain QR codes linking to the court filing.
A print version will also be displayed at the Hong Kong police headquarters in Wan Chai.
The lyrics of “Glory to Hong Kong” call for people to fight for freedom and “liberate Hong Kong” in a “revolution of our times”.
The last expression was found to be capable of carrying a secessionist meaning in the city’s first national security trial.
The song became so popular it topped the search result on Google for “Hong Kong national anthem” in some overseas jurisdictions, which led to a series of mix-ups at several international sports events where it was played instead of “March of the Volunteers”.
The city government’s Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau has since updated its webpage to allow people to download the correct tune.
