Hong Kong Journalists Association considers seeking exemption to possible court ban against protest song ‘Glory to Hong Kong’
- Journalists’ group has instructed lawyers to write to Department of Justice to obtain more information about application for court injunction against playing protest song
- ‘We may consider requesting court for leave to intervene in proceedings and to apply to have news reporting considered exempt in order to protect journalists,’ group says
The Hong Kong Journalists Association has said it may apply to the courts for an exemption to use protest song “Glory to Hong Kong” in the context of news reporting if the government’s application for an injunction is granted next month.
The association has instructed its lawyers to write to the Department of Justice to obtain more information about the government’s application, the organisation said on Wednesday.
The government is seeking to ban all forms of the protest song and its derivatives.
The court ban, if granted, will prevent anyone with secessionist or seditious intent, or seeking to violate the national anthem law from “broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing” the song, including on the internet.
Hongkongers free to speak up about proposed ban on protest song: justice chief
The court is expected to hear the case on July 21.
The association said: “We have also made it clear that we may consider requesting the court for leave to intervene in the proceedings and to apply to have news reporting considered exempt [if an injunction is granted] in order to protect journalists.”
“The association would like to emphasise that it has no intention to publish or upload the song ‘Glory to Hong Kong’.”
The court in 2019 acknowledged the importance of press freedom when it ruled in favour of an exemption from a ban granted to police over the publishing of officers’ personal details.
The ban aimed to combat doxxing attempts against officers amid anti-government protests that year.
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Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok on Tuesday called on those who disagreed with the government’s application to come forward and take part in the legal proceedings so both sides could “set out our respective arguments before the judge”.
On the same day, 24 international human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch and Article 19, urged Apple, Google, Meta, Twitter and Spotify in an open letter to file a legal appeal with the Hong Kong court to oppose the injunction bid.
The proposed ban came after organisers of several overseas sports events played the protest tune instead of the national anthem, “March of the Volunteers”.
“Glory to Hong Kong” had featured in Google’s top search results for “Hong Kong national anthem”.
