HK govt's tightened censorship rules allow for retroactive ban of films

The Hong Kong government is planning to tighten its grip on the screening of movies with a certain censorship measures, and some industry players have already raised their concern over the proposed law amendments.  The changes to the Film Censorship Ordinance empower the chief secretary to prohibit previously approved productions if they are deemed threats to national security. It also requires official censors to assess the impact of production on national security in the approval process, with the maximum penalty for unauthorised screenings increased to three years in prison and HK$1 million fine. Also, the government will empower the secretary for commerce and economic development to delay the vetting of films for up to 28 days when necessary. 

Secretary for commerce and economic development Edward Yau said the legislative amendment does not change the film censorship system. He said, "Basically, for films, for public viewing, for exhibition, it will still be subject to the same system where they can send in a copy for consideration, categorisation, grading or other conditions to be imposed."

He added, "Of course, with the enactment of the National Security Law (NSL) and also the update of the administrative guidelines issued in June, we have, in fact, given much clearer guidelines regarding the application of national security consideration in the film censorship processes."

According to a report from the South China Morning Post, Yau said the usual appeal process through the official board of review could not be used to challenge bans related to national security grounds. The proposed bill will be handed to the Legislative Council for its first and second reading next Wednesday.

Practitioners in the film industry and movie fans have however expressed their concern. Some movies produced years or decades ago, including From Beijing with Love, Ten Years, Her Fatal Ways and Lost in the fumes, include content related to Hong Kong and China. For example, From Beijing with Love was about corruption in China and Lost in the fumes depicted the life of activist Edward Leung.

Yau also said the appeal mechanism still exists as it is still in the law. "We have not and are not going to make any changes to that part of the appeal. That means administrative decisions would still be subject to the review board, except in the circumstances where such cases involve national security - then we will disapply of the power given to the board for obvious reasons which we have explained. I think all administrative decisions taken in Hong Kong's system would be subject to judicial review as usual," he added. 

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