Hong Kong Amends National Security Law, Will Now Censor Films in Similar Fashion as Beijing

The Hong Kong government has amended censor guidelines for its Film Censorship Ordinance, equipping it with the ability to ban films deemed as a threat to national security, the Associated Press reported.

The amendment, announced Friday, may signal a decline in freedom of expression for the city as the Chinese Communist Party seeks to quell anti-government sentiment.

The government said that the updated ordinance gives censors the additional duty of monitoring for any "portrayal, depiction or treatment of any act or activity which may amount to an offense endangering national security." The government did not describe what specific acts or images may endanger national security but affirmed that censors could "prevent or suppress" films that meet the criteria.

"The film censorship regulatory framework is built on the premise of a balance between protection of individual rights and freedoms on the one hand, and the protection of legitimate societal interests on the other," the government said.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

The amended ordinance takes Hong Kong a step closer to the censorship of films on the Chinese mainland, which are closely vetted for themes and scenes critical of the Communist Party's leadership or that do not align with values that the government seeks to espouse.

"This film censorship system shows how freedom of expression is disappearing from Hong Kong," said Anders Hammer, director of "Do Not Split," an Oscar-nominated documentary about the 2019 protests in Hong Kong.

"In 2021 we have seen how the situation is deteriorating further where activists and pro-democracy politicians are put in prison, charged under the new draconian national security law. And unfortunately, it looks like the local government and Beijing only want to continue with this dissolvement of basic democratic rights in Hong Kong."

In March, organizers canceled the screening of the documentary "Inside the Red Brick Wall" which portrays clashes between pro-democracy protesters and police at a local university, following an editorial in a pro-Beijing newspaper that said the movie spreads messages of subversion and may breach the national security law.

Censors in May also issued warnings to a hospital workers' union over the screening of two films related to the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, stating that it had not sought approval and that one of the films had not been rated.

Earlier this month, Hong Kong authorities banned for a second year the annual candlelight vigil held in remembrance of victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Authorities have also ramped up efforts to overhaul the school system to instill "patriotism" in students.