10
Section 9 (D) listed those acts that would not be considered incitement. These
included showing that the PRC or HKSAR government has been “misled or mistaken in
any of its measures” or pointing out errors in the laws or administration of justice in
either jurisdiction.
43
The Hong Kong Journalists Association described 9C as “the greatest threat to
freedom of expression and press freedom” for dealing with the “written word.”
44
The
publishing and book industries saw themselves as especially vulnerable to the offense.
The International Publishers Association, which represents publishing associations in
more than 60 countries, argued that, “The very fact that it was necessary to insert Article
9D, limiting the scope of Article 9C and expressly permitting certain forms of free
expression, shows the vagueness and overbroad scope of the provision.” IPA called the
entire offense of handling seditious publications a “clear threat to the fundamental
freedoms to publish and to read.”
45
Further troubling were the government’s proposals to increase some penalties for
sedition and for seditious publications to seven years from the current two years and to
remove prosecution time limits. With the amendments, however, the government did
reinstate a time limit – two years – for the handling of seditious publications. But, for the
actual offense of sedition, the government continued not to place any time limits and the
ultimate penalty was to have been life in prison.
Many common law countries such as the United States, Australia, Canada and the
United Kingdom and others have recognized the outdated and unprincipled nature of
sedition laws.
46
In its proposals, the HKSAR government had in varying degrees updated
43
9(D)(3) listed the prescribed acts that do not fall under the ordinance: “(a) showing that the Central
People’s Government” or the HKSAR government “has been misled or mistaken in any of its measures; (b)
pointing out errors or defects – (i) in the government or constitution of; (ii) in the laws of; or (iii) in the
administration of justice in,” the PRC or in the HKSAR “with a view to the remedying of such errors or
defects; (c) persuading members of the public” in the PRC or in the HKSAR “to attempt to procure, by
lawful means, the alteration of any matter provided for in the law” of the PRC or of the HKSAR, “as the
case may be; or (d) pointing out any matter which is producing or has a tendency to produce feelings of ill-
will or enmity between different classes of the population” of the PRC or of the HKSAR “with a view to
the removal of such matter.”
44
HKJA Executive Committee, Submission to the Legislative Council on the National Security
(Legislative Provisions) Bill, 7 April 2003.
45
In a 14 March 2003 submission to the HKSAR Government, the Geneva-based International Publishers
Association warned that, “Article 9C would affect the entire book trade. If Article 9C came into force,
authors, publishers, booksellers and librarians would face permanent uncertainty as to which publication
would or not qualify as ‘seditious.’ ” The IPA represents more than 60 countries, including the United
States, United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines.
46
The last prosecution in the United Kingdom for sedition was in 1947. The law commissions of the United
Kingdom and Canada called for the abolition of sedition offenses. South Korea eliminated its sedition laws
during legal and democratic reforms in 1988.
Convention