A 27-year-old unemployed man was involved in posting a clip of Hong Kong fencing team representative Cheung Ka-long winning the gold medal in the individual foil competition at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics with the melody of a protest song on an online platform. He denied the charge of insulting the national anthem and the charge of insulting the regional flag, which is an alternate charge. He was on trial at Hong Kong Eastern Magistrates' Court yesterday. The prosecution emphasised that the song was disseminated by protestors during the Anti-ELAB Movement, and is known to involve advocating "Hong Kong independence" even without lyrics. The music already symbolises these meanings. Magistrate Miss Wat Lai-man, Minnie adjourned the case to March 29 for further trial. The defendant was released on bail, but he was not allowed to leave Hong Kong and had to surrender his travel documents.
The prosecution plan refers to that since Cheung Ka-long won the gold medal in the East Olympics on July 26, 2021, the defendant Cheng Wing-chun (27 years old) used the YouTube account "Wei Wen" to upload the awards clip to YouTube on that night, emphasising that the national anthem had been adapted to the melody of the protest song. The defendant claimed that it was to practise the skills of editing videos or making "Re-creation", and he did not know the meaning behind the songs. However, after posting the clips, he was criticised in the comment, and he set his browsing rights to private after a day or two. The police arrested the defendant on July 21 of the same year for "insulting the national anthem".
Li Ka-man, a Detective Police Constable [DPC] from the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau (CSTCB) testified yesterday that she first browsed and downloaded the clips involved in the case from the defendant's YouTube channel on July 29, 2021. The visibility had been set to private by the day after which it was unable to be viewed. Until July 12, 2022, she found that the video was changed from private to unlisted, and could only be viewed through a hyperlink. As of the 30th of the same month, the video had more than 97,000 views and over 950 comments, including contents that support "Hong Kong independence".
The Police Sergeant Chui ChiSing of CSTCB testified as an expert. He was assigned to collect data of the protest song, which includes the number of views, its source, etc., and even if he knew how to distinguish the authenticity of the clips, he would watch each segment two or three times to minutes and compare. Search for another similar song with 500,000 views to compare to the protest song in order to objectively display the numerous.
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