Four books including Szeto Wah memoir rejected; Chow Hang-tung seeks judicial review, saying decision unconstitutional
被拒收取司徒華回憶錄、六四書籍等4書 鄒幸彤申司法覆核指懲教決定不合憲
Chow Hang-tung, the former vice-chairwoman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China who is currently remanded in custody over the Alliance case, said her mother tried earlier this year to send her four books published by the Hong Kong Journalists Association, including *People Will Not Forget: A Record of the 1989 Democracy Movement*, the novel *Younger Brother* by Chan Wai, the memoir *The Great River Flows East* by the late Democratic Party veteran Szeto Wah, and the memoir *Words of a Bell Ringer* by Occupy Central initiator Chu Yiu-ming. The Correctional Services Department withheld all four books on grounds including that they contained “biased descriptions of social events” and could cause prisoners to “develop an awareness of opposing governance.” Chow’s appeal to the Correctional Services Department was also rejected. On Tuesday (the 30th), she filed for judicial review in the High Court, challenging the department’s decision as unconstitutional and unreasonable, and as infringing her freedom of expression protected under the Basic Law. She said the decision placed her at risk of being “completely cut off” from information outside prison, and asked the court to overturn it and allow her to receive the four books at the remand centre. The application said the books merely described contemporary political events, history and other matters, and were not “banned books” in Hong Kong. Even if some of their content challenged the political order, it said that “in a democratic society, political ideas that challenge the existing political order in a peaceful manner should be given the opportunity to be expressed.”
正就支聯會案還押的前支聯會副主席鄒幸彤，指其母親今年初嘗試送入記協出版的《人民不會忘記：八九民運實錄》、作者陳慧所著小說《弟弟》、已故民主黨元老司徒華回憶錄《大江東去》及佔中發起人朱耀明回憶錄《敲鐘者言》，惟 4 本書遭懲教署以「對社會事件存在偏頗描述」、引起在囚者「萌生對抗管治嘅意識」等理由扣起。 鄒幸彤向懲教署提出上訴亦遭駁回。她周二（30 日）入稟高等法院提出司法覆核，挑戰懲教署的決定不合憲、不合理，侵害她受《基本法》保障的表達自由，令她蒙受與外界資訊「完全隔絕」的風險，要求法庭推翻署方決定，批准她在收押所收取該 4 本書。 入稟狀強調，相關書籍僅描述當代政治事件、歷史等，在香港亦非「禁書」，即使有部分內容挑戰政治秩序，「在一個民主社會，應給予機會表達，以和平方式挑戰現行政治秩序的政治理念」。