Hong Kong will scrutinise past films for national security breaches under a tough new censorship law in the latest blow to the city’s political and artistic freedoms.
Authorities announced in June that the financial hub’s censorship board would check any future films for content that breached the security law. But on Tuesday they unveiled a new, hardened censorship law that would also cover any titles that had previously been given a green light.
“Any film for public exhibition, past, present and future, will need to get approval,” the commerce secretary, Edward Yau, said.
Authorities have embarked on a sweeping crackdown to root out Beijing’s critics after democracy protests convulsed the financial hub two years ago. A new, China-imposed security law and an official campaign dubbed “Patriots rule Hong Kong” has since criminalised much dissent and strangled the democracy movement.
The security law bans anything authorities deem to be secession, subversion, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces.
Almost all those arrested under the law have been democracy activists. A legislative brief given to reporters on Tuesday mentioned recent documentaries that “glorified” or “incited” protests.
The new law must be approved by the city’s legislature – a near certainty, given it has been purged of any opposition over the past year.
The maximum sentence for showing illegal films will be increased to up to three years’ jail and a HK$1m ($130,000) fine.
www.theguardian.com