HONG KONG (AP) — The Hong Kong authorities was given the inexperienced gentle on Wednesday to attraction a court docket’s refusal to ban a protest track, after authorities legal professionals cited nationwide safety considerations.
“Glory to Hong Kong” was typically sung by demonstrators throughout months of anti-government protests in 2019. It was later mistakenly performed as the town’s anthem at worldwide sporting occasions.
The court docket’s determination in July to not ban the track was a setback for Hong Kong leaders searching for to crack down on dissent.
Government legal professionals sought an attraction, arguing that if the chief authority thought of a measure mandatory, the court docket ought to enable it, except it thought of it should don’t have any impact.
The legal professionals’ arguments raised considerations over Hong Kong’s judicial independence, which was promised to be hold intact after the previous British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Judge Anthony Chan on Wednesday granted the federal government permission to attraction in opposition to his earlier ruling, however insisted the grant of an interlocutory injunction banning the track is a matter for the court docket to determine.
The authorities went to the court docket in June after Google resisted strain to show China’s nationwide anthem as the highest lead to searches for the town’s anthem as an alternative of “Glory to Hong Kong.”
Critics have warned that granting the request to ban the published or distribution of the track would add to a decline in civil liberties since Beijing launched a crackdown following the 2019 protests. They stated granting the court docket order may disrupt the operations of tech giants and harm the town’s attraction as a enterprise middle.
The proposed ban would goal anybody who makes use of the track to advocate for the separation of Hong Kong from China. The authorities is also searching for to ban any actions utilizing the track to incite others to commit secession and insult the nationwide anthem, together with on-line.
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