If anybody is surprised by this we’re surprised that they are surprised….This is just round 1. Govt spaces first privates spaces second
…Chief Executive Carrie Lam vowed to be on “full alert” against artwork displays deemed to be endangering the city’s national security in government-funded spaces.
A Hong Kong artist has warned that the national security law will soon be used to “suffocate” the city’s arts sector following an editorial from a pro-Beijing paper slamming the government-run Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) for “funding black violence films.”
The state-controlled Ta Kung Pao accused the council on Wednesday of distributing around HK$15 million in funding over the last three years to cultural organisations it claims may have violated the security law.
…Chief Executive Carrie Lam vowed to be on “full alert” against artwork displays deemed to be endangering the city’s national security in government-funded spaces.
“With the national security law in place, we have to safeguard national security,” she said during a Legislative Council question and answer session. “We have to respect the freedom of artistic expression but I’m sure staff [at art and cultural centres] are able to tell… whether pieces are meant to incite hatred or to destroy relations between two places and undermine national security.”
“We will be on full alert in watching such matters,” she added.
Lam’s comments were made in response to pro-Beijing lawmaker Eunice Yung’s questions over whether the government will allow artwork deemed to be endangering the city’s national security to be displayed in the city’s arts and cultural spaces – including the new M+ museum of contemporary visual culture set to open later this year.
“We have so much time and effort building the West Kowloon Cultural District. How come there will be displays of art pieces that are suspected to have violated the national security law and also is an insult to the country?” Yung asked.
Spotted by
Alvin Y.H. Cheung
SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, McGill University
Affiliated Scholar, US-Asia Law Institute, NYU
JSD (NYU) 2020
MA (Cantab.) 2011
