Hong Kong soccer fans booing national anthem, restaurants using song as background music will run afoul of new law, police guidelines say
- In gathering evidence, officers expected to scour through public statements or social media to find out whether suspects had the intent to insult anthem
- But in cases where schools are involved, liaison officers from the force should first contact staff to understand the situation, guidelines say
In gathering evidence, officers were also expected to scour through public statements or social media to find out whether suspects, including those who sang the song out of tune or with the wrong lyrics, had the intent to insult the national anthem, according to documents seen by the Post.
But in cases where schools were involved, liaison officers from the force should first contact staff to understand the situation before referring these to suitable units, which should avoid making arrests of underage suspects on campuses, the guidelines said.
The Post has learned that the top management of the city’s 31,000-strong police force had been briefing various units over the past few days, after the Legislative Council passed the national anthem bill on June 4.
Legco voted 41 to one for the legislation, at a session where foul-smelling liquid was twice released in the chamber, while all but one opposition lawmaker abstained from voting in protest.
Under the law, anyone found guilty of misusing or insulting the national anthem could be fined up to HK$50,000 (US$6,450) and jailed for three years. The legislation came into effect on Friday.
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“Like the national flag and the national emblem, the national anthem is the symbol and sign of the nation. As an inalienable part of the People’s Republic of China, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is duty-bound to preserve the dignity of the national anthem through legislation,” Lam said, adding that the Education Bureau would soon release circulars on teaching students how to “understand the history and spirit of the national anthem and to observe the etiquette for the playing and singing of the national anthem”.
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Their antics were listed in the National Anthem Ordinance Investigation Guidelines, circulated among the police force, as the top example.
“Section 7(2) of the ordinance provides an offence is committed if any person publicly and intentionally insults the national anthem in any way, and thus the above act would have contravened the legislation,” it said.
But whether singing the song out of tune or using the wrong lyrics was committing an offence would be a matter of intent, depending on whether the person was thinking of insulting the national anthem at the time he or she carried out the act, the guidelines said.
Frontline officers were instructed to gather evidence by looking at the person’s behaviour including whether he had expressed the intent to insult the national anthem “publicly or through social media”, before his act, another PowerPoint presentation given to police officers said.
The bill also catches any use of the national anthem as background music in a public place.
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The presentation said in this case, its definition would cover business premises, even when they were closed for private events, such as restaurants.
“A restaurant regularly open to the public may still be defined as a ‘public place’ even when it hosts a private event at a certain time for specified guests,” it said.
Criticism of the anthem would not amount to an offence, it said, as the law did not require people to accept that the anthem was “pleasing to the ears”.
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But distributing or disseminating materials deemed as insulting the anthem online on social platforms could constitute a breach, although it was unlikely that service providers would be caught as it would be difficult to establish their intent.
While carrying out their duty, the guidelines said, officers should exercise professional sensitivity and adhere to other provisions of the bill which set the standard and etiquette when the national anthem was played or sung.
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Human Rights Observer founder Icarus Wong Ho-yin urged police to exercise restraint when carrying out law enforcement and refrain from making mass arrests.
If match-goers and those who boo national anthems were detained indiscriminately at soccer stadiums, it would deprive the former of their rights, he said.
“Of course, enforcement can become difficult. But it should not be done at the expense of the freedom of other citizens who should not be detained,” he said.
