Hong kong to censor films due to national security law

Movies deemed a security threat can bring penalties of up to three years’ jail under stricter law that also covers previously approved titles

Movies that Hong Kong censors deem a national security risk will not be able lớn appeal via the usual channels. Photograph: Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock
Movies that Hong Kong censors deem a national security risk will not be able to appeal via the usual channels. Photograph: Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

Hong Kong will scrutinise past films for national security breaches under a tough new censorship law in the latest blow to lớn the city’s political & artistic freedoms.

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Authorities announced in June that the financial hub’s censorship board would kiểm tra any future films for nội dung 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 & future, will need to lớn 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 chiến dịch dubbed “Patriots rule Hong Kong” has since criminalised much dissent and strangled the democracy movement.

The security law bans anything authorities deem to lớn be secession, subversion, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces.

Almost all those arrested under the law have been democracy activists. A legislative brief given khổng lồ 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 khổng lồ up khổng lồ three years’ jail và a HK$1m ($130,000) fine.

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Titles deemed a national security risk by censors will not be able to appeal via the usual channels. Instead, they will have to lớn launch a judicial nhận xét in Hong Kong’s courts, a long & costly legal procedure.

Authorities can also revoke viewing licences of venues that show titles deemed “contrary to lớn the interests of national security”.

The law will bring Hong Kong much closer khổng lồ the Chinese mainland, where films are rigorously vetted và only a handful of western movies or documentaries see a commercial release each year.

Hong Kong historically boasted a thriving film scene and for much of the latter half of the last century, Cantonese cinema was world class.

The đô thị still maintains some key studios, a handful of lauded directors & a thriving indie scene, but new political red lines are being drawn each month.

The announcement of Tuesday’s new censorship law came as Nicole Kidman is filming an Amazon-funded series in the city based on a book about the gilded lives of the city’s “expats”.

Authorities allowed Kidman và her film crew khổng lồ skip Covid quarantine, sparking public anger last week.