Hong Kong yesterday banned films that run contrary to the interests of its National Security Law, the latest crackdown on freedom of expression in the territory.
The Hong Kong Legislative Council amended the Film Censorship Bill, turning movie censors into gatekeepers of the law with penalties as high as HK$1,000,000 (US$128,569) and three years in prison for those who screen non-approved content.
Inspectors can search without a warrant a premises showing a film, including company offices or a private members’ club, and the Hong Kong Film Censorship Authority can demand more information about screenings.
Photo: Reuters
Questions hang over how the changes will affect streaming services such as Netflix Inc, which offers a documentary on right advocate Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) in Hong Kong.
Netflix declined to comment, while Vimeo Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc did not reply to questions about the changes.
“It is a treacherous climate for businesses having to make content decisions,” said Darrell West, senior fellow at the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution.
The changes are part of a wider legal assault on the freedom of expression and information once prized in the former British colony, but severely reduced in mainland China.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) said that the Legislative Council had “delivered a brilliant performance,” as all of the political opposition had either been arrested, disqualified or resigned after Beijing mandated that national security officials approve candidates.
“They have done really well in terms of legislative amendments and proposals,” Lam said in a regular news briefing on Tuesday.
Baking such censorship into law were “dictatorial maneuvrings designed to undermine a vibrant Hong Kong film culture,” said Joseph Tse-Hei Lee (李榭熙), director of the Global Asia Institute at Pace University in New York, who has published two papers on Hong Kong cinema.
After decades producing global movie stars such as Tony Leung (梁朝偉), some in the film industry worried that the amendments signaled the “death of Hong Kong cinema,” Lee said.
“It is hard to imagine how film directors, executive producers and actors could stay politically neutral because China’s definition of politics focuses narrowly on any opinion and action thought to be a security threat,” he said.
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
RSS