Hong Kong: Arresting nationwide anthem soccer is an assault on freedom of expression

Responding to the arrest of three folks accused of “insulting” China’s nationwide anthem by turning their backs on the pitch and failing to face when it was performed at a soccer match there in Hong Kong, Amnesty Worldwide’s China Director Sarah Brooks stated:

“As soon as once more in Hong Kong, a superbly peaceable protest motion is met with a robust police response by a brutal legislation – on this case the Nationwide Anthem Legislation – designed to stifle freedom of expression.

“These arrests are the most recent in a sequence of incidents that more and more reveal Hong Kong as a police state, the place residents are scrutinized for even the slightest signal of dissent. much less after which severely punished.

“Folks’s proper to precise emotions about nationwide anthems and different state symbols is nicely protected by worldwide human rights legislation. However in Hong Kong, it’s an offense to ‘disrespect’ the Chinese language nationwide anthem, even when it entails the straightforward act of remaining seated.

“These arrested for the ‘offensive’ Chinese language nationwide anthem had been focused solely for peacefully exercising their proper to freedom of expression and the case towards them must be dropped instantly.”

Background data

Police stated three folks had been arrested at Hong Kong’s World Cup qualifier towards Iran on Thursday evening as a result of they “turned their backs to the pitch and didn’t stand for the nationwide anthem”.

Native media reported that plainclothes cops had been monitoring and filming spectators because the Chinese language nationwide anthem was performed on the Hong Kong Stadium.

Hong Kong’s Nationwide Anthem legislation, handed in 2020, criminalizes “insulting” China’s nationwide anthem, punishable by as much as three years in jail. All these arrested on Thursday have been launched on bail, pending investigation.

A number of folks have been focused for his or her peaceable activism in Hong Kong in current weeks, together with 4 individuals who had been arrested on the thirty fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen crack on June 4, and eight who arrested for “affect” beneath town’s new Article 23 legislation to peacefully commemorate the crackdown earlier than the anniversary.

Underneath worldwide human rights legislation, freedom of expression can shield concepts and speech that some could discover offensive if they aren’t supposed or are inclined to incite imminent violence. Worldwide human rights requirements clarify that peaceable criticism of, or contempt for, the nation or its symbols, even when offensive, doesn’t pose a risk to nationwide safety or justify prohibition on different grounds.