Hong Kong’s government yesterday said that it is seeking a court order to prohibit people from broadcasting or distributing the protest song Glory to Hong Kong after it was played as the territory’s anthem at several international sporting events in the past year.
The Hong Kong Department of Justice said in a statement that it had applied for an injunction on Monday to prohibit unlawful acts relating to the song, which became an unofficial anthem for protests in 2019.
The department said that it is awaiting court direction and for a hearing date to be fixed.
Photo: AFP
The lyrics of the song contain slogans that have been ruled by the court as “constituting secession” and it is highly likely that the song would continue to be widely used given that it had been mistakenly played as Hong Kong’s anthem instead of China’s national anthem, March of the Volunteers, The government said.
In 2020, the government outlawed the protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” for being secessionist and subversive. The Glory to Hong Kong lyrics contain parts of the slogan and was therefore widely considered to be banned.
Hong Kong wanted to prohibit anyone from “broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing in any way” the protest song, or any adaptations of it that are substantially similar to the original in melody and lyrics.
The injunction targets anyone who uses Glory to Hong Kong to advocate for the separation of Hong Kong from China.
In a statement attached to the injunction, the Hong Kong government said that it “respects and values the rights and freedoms protected by the Basic Law, but freedom of speech is not absolute.”
“The application pursues the legitimate aim of safeguarding national security and is necessary, reasonable, legitimate and consistent with the Bill of Rights,” the statement read.
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