香港禁止内有一秒鐘2014年抗議活動影像的電影

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following

Hong Kong Bans Film Over One-Second Scene Showing 2014 Protest

Hayley Wong

Thu, August 11, 2022 at 9:53 PM

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong censors have banned an award-winning animation from being shown over a one-second scene depicting the 2014 pro-democracy protests, local media reported, in the latest sign of free speech curbs in the finance hub.

“Losing Sight of a Longed Place,” an eight-minute film about a young gay man’s struggles in Hong Kong, was scheduled to screen Sunday at a local film show organized by the Ground Up Film Society.

The filmmakers said in a Facebook post Wednesday the movie was pulled from the line-up after they refused to submit an edited version, without specifying which scene censors asked them to remove. The film in its entirety was rejected by the Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration, they said.

Local media including the South China Morning Post reported the filmmakers were asked to remove a scene showing 2014’s “illegal occupation,” citing a phrase the government uses to describe the Umbrella Movement, when thousands of peaceful protesters occupied part of the city’s central business district to demand broader voting rights.

The Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration declined to comment on the case.

Produced by three university students and released in 2017, the animation was previously endorsed in a government statement that trumpeted its release at an Amsterdam film festival as part of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office’s push to promote the city’s film culture abroad.

Hong Kong has since cracked down on free speech in the wake of 2019’s mass anti-government unrest. Last year, authorities passed a film censorship law banning content that runs contrary to the interests of a Beijing-drafted national security law, with penalties as high as three years in prison for those who screen non-approved content.

Since the security law passed in June 2020, the city legislature has also adopted an anti-doxxing law, moved to limit information available in the companies registry, and led a pressure campaign against several major pro-democracy news outlets, resulting in their closure.

Translation

（彭博社）- 據當地媒體報導，香港審查機構已禁止一獲獎動畫, 因其播放一秒描述 2014 年民主抗議活動的場景，這是金融中心言論自由限制的最新跡象。

一部講述一名年輕男同性戀者在香港掙扎的八分鐘電影《暗房夜空》原定於週日在平地映社組織的本地電影展上放映。

電影製作人周三在 Facebook 上發帖稱，在他們拒絕提交剪輯版後，這部電影被從輪候中撤下，但沒有具體說明哪些場景審查員要求他們刪除。他們說，這部電影已被電影、報刊及物品管理辦事處整體上拒絕。

包括《南華早報》在內的當地媒體報導稱，電影製作人被要求刪除一個顯示 2014 年 “非法佔領”的場景，政府用“非法佔領” 一詞來描述雨傘運動，當時成千上萬的和平抗議者佔領了該市中央商業區的一部分，要求更廣泛的投票權。

電影、報刊及物品管理辦事處拒絕對此案發表評論。

這部動畫由三名大學生製作並於 2017 年上映，此前曾在一份政府聲明中得到認可，該聲明大肆宣揚其在阿姆斯特丹電影節上的上映，作為香港經濟貿易辦事處推動在國外推廣該市電影文化的一部分。

自 2019 年大規模反政府騷亂之後，香港開始嚴厲打擊言論自由。去年，當局通過了一項電影審查法，禁止有違反由北京起草的國家安全法權利的內容，對放映未經批准的內容的人處以最高三年的監禁。

自 2020 年 6 月通過安全法以來，該市立法機關還通過了一項反信息搜索法，限制公司註冊信息中的可用信息，並領導一個針對幾家主要的民主新聞媒體的施壓運動，導致它們關閉。

              So, now there is zero-tolerance policy for anti-government voice in Hong Kong, be it in film or in the mass media. The government is trying to wash away the memories of anti-government protests that happened in 2019.