(HFP) Hong Kong’s highest court has rejected an appeal from a district council over rules limiting protests at the Legislative Council.
Sai Kung district councillor Christine Fong was previously fined HK$2,000 for contravening the Legislative Council’s Administrative Instructions for Regulating Admittance and Conduct of Person, when she protested twice in May 2014. Fong displayed and chanted slogans against the the extension of the South-East New Territories landfill. The Public Works Subcommittee meetings were cut short owing to the incident.
Fong had argued on appeal that sections of the Administrative Instructions violated her right to freedom of expression, as protected by Article 27 of the Basic Law and Article 16 of the Bill of Rights.
But five judges at the Court of Final Appeal unanimously ruled that a reasonable balance had been struck between allowing the LegCo to properly to carry out its constitutional functions for the benefit of society, and the limited restrictions on the guaranteed right of freedom of expression. Continue reading