The Hong Kong government was given the green light on Wednesday to appeal a court’s refusal to ban a protest song after government lawyers cited national security reasons.
“Glory to Hong Kong” was frequently sung by protesters during months-long anti-government protests in 2019. It was later mistakenly played as the semi-autonomous region’s anthem at international sporting events.
The court’s decision not to ban the song, released in July, was seen as a setback for Hong Kong leaders who have tried to clamp down on dissent.
Government lawyers requested an appeal, arguing that if the executive branch considered a measure necessary, the court should allow it.
The lawyers’ arguments raised concerns about Hong Kong’s judicial independence.
Beijing vowed to keep the city’s economic and social system intact after the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
On Wednesday, Judge Anthony Chan granted the government permission to appeal its earlier decision, but insisted that banning the song was a matter for the court to decide.
The government went to court in June after US search engine Google resisted pressure to show China’s national anthem as the first result in searches for the city’s anthem, instead of “Glory to Hong Kong.”
Critics of the authorities in this Chinese special administrative region have warned that complying with the request to ban the transmission or distribution of the music would compound the decline in civil liberties since Beijing launched a crackdown after the 2019 protests.
The same voices said that granting the injunction could disrupt the operations of the tech giants and hurt the city’s attractiveness as a business hub.
The ban would target anyone using the song to advocate Hong Kong’s separation from China.
The government also seeks to ban any action that uses the song to incite others to commit secession and insult the national anthem, including on the Internet.
Source: TSF
