Chief Secretary slams Bloomberg 'misleading' over reporting Batman film cancellation
Local | 23 Oct 2022 3:57 pm
Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan Kwok-ki wrote to Bloomberg on Sunday to denounce as deviating from facts a report that noted Hong Kong had cancelled screenings of the Batman film on the grounds of national security law.
"We believed the reporting should have been accurate from the very start," claimed Chan, noting Bloomberg has revised the report to describe the cancellation of the film from due to "national security concerns" to "violence factors".
"It undermines freedom of speech and expression in Hong Kong," Chan said.
On Friday, Bloomberg published a report revealing that Hong Kong authorities have cancelled the showing of the 2008 movie The Dark Knight which was set for October 27 for an open-air Grounds venue and put Iron Man instead, citing the national security concerns of government officials.
The show's organiser, The Grounds announced afterwards the cancellation was due to the Office for Film Newspaper and Article Administration considering violent scenes in the film would not be "appropriate" for outdoor screenings.
Part clips of The Dark Knight were shot in 2007 in Hong Kong, including scenes of a confrontation between Batman and a Chinese accountant who fled to Hong Kong and served for a criminal syndicate.
Last November, the Hong Kong government published and enforced the Film Censorship (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 and the updated Film Censorship Guidelines for Censors to provide censors should examine whether a film "would be contrary to the interests of national security" before its release, and set a panel of Film Censorship Authority to reject the screening of a film without warrants of Hong Kong's Court.
