16 July 2003
GOVERNMENT BOWS TO PRESSURE OVER NATIONAL SECURITY LAW
People power has scored a victory in Hong Kong. Following massive protests earlier this month - the largest since 1989 - the Hong Kong government has delayed plans to push through a national security law that poses grave threats to free expression, reports the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA).
The Hong Kong legislature, dominated by pro-government members, was to have voted on the bill on 9 July. But a day earlier, authorities announced that it would defer the vote until further notice. Freedom House, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and the International Federation of Journalists joined HKJA in welcoming the move.
The surprise announcement came after 500,000 demonstrators poured through the streets of Hong Kong on 1 July to voice their concerns over the proposed law. Another protest numbering 50,000 people surrounded the Legislature on 8 July to add further pressure on the government.
The proposed law carries severe penalties for such crimes as sedition, secession, subversion and the theft of state secrets. HKJA says under the law, journalists and others could be jailed for merely handling or distributing publications the government deemed seditious, adding that the law's definition of "seditious publications" is vague and prone to abuse.
HKJA is calling on the government to incorporate the Johannesburg Principles - a set of international standards developed in 1995 by legal experts including ARTICLE 19 - to safeguard citizens' rights to free expression in the laws.
The Principles state, "expression may be punished as a threat to national security only if a government can demonstrate that the expression is intended to incite imminent violence, is likely to incite such violence, and there is a direct and immediate connection between the expression and the likelihood or occurrence of such violence." [Updates "IFEX Communiqué" #12-26: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/51598/]
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1) Write a letter to the Hong Kong government. See IFJ's recommended action: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/51874/
2) Read more about the issue:
- Report by Hong Kong Journalists Association and ARTICLE 19: http://www.freeway.org.hk/hkja/ben_act/download/Report02.doc
- Report by Freedom House: http://www.freedomhouse.org/media/pressrel/070803.htm
- Committee to Protect Journalists: http://www.cpj.org/op_ed/Neumann08july03.html
- The Johannesburg Principles: http://www.article19.org/docimages/511.htm
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