By Jessie Pang and Justin Fung
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Hong Kong’s High Court on Friday rejected a government bid to ban the protest song “Glory to Hong Kong”, saying it could undermine freedom of expression and cause potential “chilling effects”.
The government’s application for an injunction came after “Glory to Hong Kong” was played mistakenly at several international sporting events, instead of China’s national anthem “March of the Volunteers”.
China-ruled Hong Kong does not have its own anthem but as a Chinese territory since its return from British rule in 1997, it uses China’s anthem.
The protest song was widely sung and played during the city’s months-long pro-democracy and anti-China protests in 2019. It was later deemed unlawful after China imposed a national security law on the financial hub as part of a crackdown on dissent.
In a written judgement rejecting the injunction, High Court Judge Anthony Chan wrote: “The court recognised the engagement of the right to freedom of expression in the consideration of this application”, while noting “chilling effects” that might be generated if the injunction was granted.
“It is by no means over-stretched to envisage that perfectly innocent people would distance themselves from what may be lawful acts involving the song for fear of trespassing the injunction which has severe consequences,” Chan added.
“I cannot be satisfied that it is just and convenient to grant the injunction. This application is accordingly dismissed.”
When the government first applied to the court for a total ban of the song in June, including publishing or disseminating the tune, it was temporarily taken down by several distributors from several online music streaming platforms including iTunes and Spotify.
DGX Music, the music group behind the song, later uploaded a new version of the album on the music steaming platforms.
Jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and barrister Chow Hang-tung, whom the court did not allow to appear in the case, wrote in a Facebook post on July 22: “I will continue to say what I have to say, sing what I want to sing. Glory to Hong Kong.”.
Hong Kong officials had also pressured Google to change its search results to display China’s anthem instead of “Glory to Hong Kong” when users searched for Hong Kong’s national anthem, but the technology giant refused.
A senior Hong Kong official, Sun Dong, said Google had told the government to first prove that the song violated local laws – thus prompting the legal move.
Google parent Alphabet declined to comment.
Hong Kong chief executive John Lee told reporters the government would closely examine the judgement before deciding whether to appeal. He said the government would not shirk from any measures to safeguard national security.
Rights groups and journalists association welcomed the move.
“Today the Hong Kong High Court took a welcome stand and defended free speech. The Hong Kong government should respect the decision and refrain from making further attempts to censor the protest song,” Human Rights Watch’s China director Sophie Richardson, said in a statement.
The head of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, Ronson Chan, said outside the court that the judgement was very reasonable.
“Exercising public power would create a chilling effect, threatening innocent people,” Chan said.
(Additional reporting by Clare Jim and James Pomfret; editing by James Pomfret, John Stonestreet and Angus MacSwan)