Hong Kong court rejects activist Chow Hang-tung’s request to be heard as ‘party’ in gov’t bid to ban ‘Glory to Hong Kong’
Hong Kong Free Press
A Hong Kong court has dismissed detained activist Chow Hang-tung’s application to be heard in a case involving the government’s ongoing attempt to ban pro-democracy song Glory to Hong Kong.
Chow, a Tiananmen vigil activist who has been detained for more than two years, applied in August to be considered a “party” in the case.
Judge Anthony Chan shot down Chow’s application on Tuesday. In a judgement, he wrote that he did not believe cases cited by her legal team supported the view that one who is not a defendant, and who has not taken out a joinder application, “should be allowed to take part in proceedings.”
A joinder application refers to a formal procedure where an outside party requests to participate in legal action.
In June, Hong Kong authorities sought an injunction to ban Glory to Hong Kong – a song that was popularised during the 2019 protests and unrest – from being performed and disseminated with illegal intent.
The government’s injunction application did not specify a defendant. Instead, it proposed to ban anyone from distributing the song with the intention to incite secession, sedition, or to violate the national anthem law, and anyone from assisting with those acts.
While the High Court refused the bid in July, saying that an injunction would not have “real utility,” the court shortly after granted the government permission to appeal the decision.
Chow, the former vice-chairperson of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, took out her application to be heard in court in August.
In the judgement on Tuesday, Chan said that Chow wanted to take part in the case hearing in July and had been in contact with the Department of Justice about the matter. In a letter to the department ahead of the hearing, Chow’s legal team argued that as “a person with intention to oppose the application for [the injunction],” she would assist the court in the current case, which “involves strong public interest elements.”
“It is unlikely that any of the [d]efendants will reveal himself or herself and appear” in court against the injunction order, Chow said as cited in the judgement.
Chan wrote that while the identities of the defendants were unknown, it did not mean anyone could become a party or a defendant.
“It is not correct that anyone can come forward, makes [sic] a claim to speak for the public interest and automatically becomes [sic] a party,” he wrote.
He added that people who are not conducting the acts prohibited by the proposed injunction order can apply to be an “intervener” to speak for the public interest.
“There was no inhibition for her to make such an application,” he wrote.
Two years in detention
Chow, the former vice-chairperson of the Alliance, had been detained since September 2021, when she was arrested and charged under the national security law. A trial date in the case has yet to be set.
She has also been charged in a number of other cases. In December 2021, she was sentenced to 12 months in jail over her involvement in the 2020 Tiananmen crackdown vigil.
The Tiananmen crackdown occurred on June 4, 1989, ending months of student-led demonstrations in China. It is estimated that hundreds, perhaps thousands, died when the People’s Liberation Army cracked down on protesters in Beijing.
Before Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong in June 2020, the city held large-scale vigils – with police approval – at Victoria Park annually to mark the crackdown’s anniversary. In 2020 and 2021, the Alliance’s application to hold the vigils were rejected with the police citing the Covid-19 pandemic. People still gathered at the park, however.
In January 2022, Chow was handed a 15-month sentence over inciting others to participate in the 2021 Tiananmen vigil. She appealed against her conviction and sentence, and won in December. But the government was granted permission to appeal her acquittal. The challenge will be heard on November 22.
In March, Chow was sentenced to four and a half months in jail over not complying with a national security police data request.
On Monday, international civil society group CIVICUS urged the authorities to end its use of repeated solitary confinement on Chow, who had allegedly been placed in isolation six times since June.
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