Detained activist Chow Hang-tung launches legal bid after 4 ‘anti-authority’ books kept from her by prison dept.
Hong Kong Free Press
Detained Hong Kong activist Chow Hang-tung has filed a legal challenge after four books were kept from her by correctional services, including one on the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, on the grounds that they “could provoke anti-authority sentiment.”
Chow, who has been detained for almost three years under the national security law, submitted her application for a judicial review to the High Court on Tuesday. She called the Correctional Services Department’s (CSD) move of barring her from receiving certain books unconstitutional and a violation of her freedom of expression as protected by law, The Witness reported.
Chow’s complaint came after the CSD allegedly confiscated four books her mother had attempted to take to her daughter to read in prison between February 22 and March 1.
The books, the titles of which have been translated into English by HKFP, were: The People Will Not Forget: A Record of the 1989 Movement, written by journalists about the Tiananmen crackdown and published by the Hong Kong Journalists Association; Brother, a fiction novel with the city’s social movements woven into its plot; and two memoirs, one by the late pro-democracy activist Szeto Wah and another by reverend Chu Yiu-ming, one of the 2014 Umbrella Movement activists.
On March 5, Chow was notified by the CSD that The People Will Not Forget: A Record of the 1989 Movement and Brother had been confiscated. According to The Witness, a CSD officer told Chow verbally that the books included “biased descriptions” that could “provoke anti-authority sentiments.”
Four days later, she received documents informing her that the two memoirs written by pro-democracy activists had also been confiscated.
Chow said she filed an appeal to the CSD at the end of March. The following month, she was informed the appeal had been denied as the books contained biased descriptions, slandered the government and the police, and promoted “anti-government and lawless mindset” as well as “violent resistance,” The Witness reported.
The CSD also gave specific reasons for the confiscation of each book. The Tiananmen crackdown book, a compilation of stories written by Hong Kong journalists, “twisted the Chinese government’s handling of the protests” and could have “negatively affected” the thoughts of prisoners, the department was cited as saying.
The CSD said Chu was a key figure in the Umbrella Movement and had been convicted of public nuisance offences. His book promoted civil disobedience and described patriotic education as brainwashing, the CSD added.
Judicial reviews are considered by the High Court’s Court of First Instance and examine the decision-making processes of administrative bodies. Issues under review must be shown to affect the wider public interest.
Books not banned in city, activist says
Chow, the former vice-chairperson of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, has been detained since September 2021, when she was charged with inciting subversion under the national security law. The group organised the city’s annual Tiananmen vigils for over two decades until police banned them on pandemic-related grounds in 2020.
The activist, who is a barrister, regularly represents herself in cases and has taken legal action to challenge authorities’ decisions. In 2022, a judicial review she filed resulted in some court reporting restrictions being lifted.
In the writ submitted on Tuesday, Chow said the CSD’s appeal mechanism lacked transparency, local media reported. The set of laws governing the management of corrections facilities in Hong Kong do not state the scope of the department’s powers nor the rights of prisoners, and therefore the appeal mechanism lacked a legal basis, she argued.
Chow added that the four books were not banned in Hong Kong and could still be found in bookstores and libraries, therefore, she should be allowed to freely obtain and read them.
The confiscation of the books could create a “chilling effect” and give the public the impression that these books may be against the law, she wrote.
Regarding the CSD’s view that the books were biased and contained “twisted statements,” Chow said she was unconvinced. The department did not highlight which parts of the books were flawed or fabricated, she wrote. Chow added that the history of the Tiananmen crackdown was well known, and there was no evidence that the writers were giving untruthful accounts.
HKFP has reached out to the CSD for comment.
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