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Hong Kong protests
Opinion
SCMP Editorial
SCMP Editorial

Editorial | The integrity of Hong Kong’s courts is under threat and must be protected

  • The spraying of graffiti at court entrances, including personal attacks against judges, is outrageous and an affront to the rule of law

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The graffiti on the wall of the High Court complex in Admiralty targeted Madam Justice Anthea Pang Po-kam. It accused her of being a “judge with a red background”, suggesting she supports Beijing. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
SCMP Editorial

The spraying of graffiti in public places has been a feature of the ongoing anti-government protests. The sight of slogans, rallying cries, threats and abuse scrawled on walls, pavements and footbridges has become familiar in Hong Kong. This might be viewed as the least of the city’s worries, given that violence and vandalism have also become common. But the graffiti painted outside a court last week, targeting a judge, raises serious concerns. It threatens to undermine public confidence in the city’s independent judiciary and to drag the courts into a political battleground. Such conduct cannot be tolerated.

The Law Society and Bar Association issued a joint statement condemning the graffiti, scrawled on the outer walls of the High Court last Wednesday, a day of mass protest and civil unrest. They rightly described the act as outrageous and an affront to the rule of law. The graffiti targeted Madam Justice Anthea Pang Po-kam, who in 2018 jailed three participants in a riot in Mong Kok. It accused her of being a “judge with a red background”, suggesting she supports Beijing. Pang was also, sadly, the subject of online attacks at the time she imposed the sentences. Personal attacks of this kind, on a judge who is just doing her job, are repugnant and unacceptable.
The graffiti follows the firebombing of entrances to the Court of Final Appeal and High Court in December. It is disturbing to see the courts targeted. Since the Occupy protests in 2014, and the sensitive cases that followed, judges and magistrates have frequently been abused and threatened by those who disagree with their decisions. The attacks have come from both pro- and anti-government camps. They have usually been ill-informed and politically motivated.

The judicial process must be respected by all. Calls from mainland officials for the judiciary to help curb violence and work with the government do not help, as they risk creating the impression that the courts are doing the administration’s bidding. The courts make their decisions impartially, based on well-established legal principles. They are not influenced by politics, nor should they be. Our judges are robust and open to criticism. But such criticism should be rational and informed. Critics should at least read their judgments and try to understand the reasoning.

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More than 6,000 arrests have been made relating to the protests. It will take years for these cases to be tried by the courts. This is a sensitive time for the judiciary, with a new chief justice to take over at the helm next year. Judges must be free to get on with the job of fairly dispensing justice without being threatened or abused. Hong Kong’s rule of law, with its independent judiciary, is a cornerstone of the city’s separate system. It is imperative that, at this time of crisis, the integrity of the courts is supported and protected.

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