London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 01, 2025

Hong Kong’s top court upholds mask ban at protests

Hong Kong’s top court upholds mask ban at protests

Top court says Hong Kong government has the right to invoke colonial-era emergency law to ban face masks at protests.

Hong Kong’s highest court has ruled that the city government’s decision to invoke a colonial-era emergency law to ban face masks at protests last year was constitutional.

The ruling on Monday is a blow for democracy supporters who had been hoping the Court of Final Appeal would side with a lower court and overturn the order.

It also confirms that Hong Kong’s chief executive – a pro-Beijing appointee – has the power to enact any law in a time of public emergency without needing the approval of the city’s partially elected legislature.

Hong Kong was convulsed by seven months of huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests against China’s increasing influence last year. During those demonstrations, many wore masks to hide their identities from authorities and to protect themselves from tear gas.

The protest movement has since been quashed by mass arrests, a coronavirus-related ban on public gatherings and Beijing’s enactment of a new national security law in June.

Carrie Lam, the chief executive, banned anyone covering their face at public rallies in October last year. She invoked the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, a British colonial law from 1922, to issue the order.


Opposition legislators challenged both the use of that emergency law and the ban on wearing masks at permitted rallies. They argued the move breached Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law.

A lower court had agreed with those bringing the challenge and expressed concerns about the emergency law and the proportionality of the mask ban.

But the top court unanimously backed the government on Monday.

“It is clearly proportionate for the Prohibition on Face Covering Regulation to seek to prohibit the wearing of facial coverings – used to hide the identity of lawbreakers and having an emboldening effect leading to degeneration of peaceful protests into violence – whether at an unauthorised assembly, a public meeting or a public procession,” the ruling said.

“The situation on the streets and in other public places in Hong Kong had become dire. Members of the public were fearful of going out to certain places and significant inconvenience was caused to the public at large by the blockage of roads and closure of public transport facilities,” it continued.

“The interests of Hong Kong as a whole should be taken into account since the rule of law itself was being undermined by the actions of masked lawbreakers who, with their identities concealed, were seemingly free to act with impunity.”

The practical consequences of the ruling were unclear, given that the government earlier this year made masks compulsory in public areas to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Antony Dapiran, a Hong Kong lawyer who has written books about the city’s protest movement, said the judges’ conclusions could prove controversial.

“Most striking is the extent to which the Court of Final Appeal judgment privileges one narrative – of ‘violence and lawlessness’ – over any other, and without the broader context in which those incidents occurred, in reaching their conclusion,” he told AFP news agency.

Joshua Wong, 24, one of Hong Kong’s most prominent democracy activists, was arrested for allegedly breaching the anti-mask law and his participation in anti-government rallies in 2019.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×