‘Glory to Hong Kong’ protest song to be banned? Government files court injunction against promoting tune
- High Court asked to restrain ‘broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing song in any way’
- Injunction targets anyone inciting others to separate city from mainland China, commit a seditious act or insult national anthem
The High Court was on Tuesday processing an unprecedented application from the justice secretary for an injunction against “Glory to Hong Kong”, widely considered the unofficial anthem for the protests triggered by a now-shelved extradition bill.
The writ, filed a day earlier, asked the court to restrain those harbouring criminal intent from “broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing in any way” the anti-government tune.
The injunction targets anyone who intends to incite others to separate Hong Kong from mainland China, commit a seditious act or insult the national anthem “March of the Volunteers”.
The court order, if granted, would also prohibit anyone from playing the song in a manner that was likely to cause it “to be mistaken as the national anthem insofar as the [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region] is concerned”, or suggest the city “is an independent state and has a national anthem of her own”.
The order would also cover “any adaptation of the song, the melody and/or lyrics of which are substantially the same as the song”.
