Hong Kong has banned films that run contrary to the interests of a Beijing-drafted national security law, the latest crackdown on freedom of expression in the Asian financial hub.
The city’s opposition-free Legislature amended the Film Censorship Bill on Wednesday, turning movie censors into gatekeepers of the security law with penalties as high as $130,000 and three years in prison for those who screen non-approved content.
Inspectors can search a premises showing a film without a warrant, including company offices or a private members’ club, and the Film Censorship Authority can demand more information about a screening under the new rules.
Questions hang over how the changes will affect streaming services such as Netflix Inc., which offers a documentary on student activist Joshua Wong in Hong Kong, for example.
Netflix declined to comment, while Vimeo Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. didn’t reply to questions about the changes.
“It is a treacherous climate for businesses having to make content decisions,” Darrell West, senior fellow at the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution, said of the law, which makes no mention of online content but has repeated references to videotapes.
The changes are part of a wider legal assault on the freedom of expression and information once prized in the former British colony but severely reduced in mainland China.
Since the security law passed in June 2020, the city legislature has adopted an anti-doxxing law, moved to limit information available in the companies registry, and curtailed the content of public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong, which has axed programs critical of the government.
The city’s leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, said the Legislative Council had “delivered a brilliant performance” since all the political opposition had either been arrested, disqualified or submitted resignations after Beijing mandated national security officials approve candidates.
“They have done really well in terms of legislative amendments and proposals,” Lam said in a regular news briefing Tuesday.