Hong Kong media differs on court verdict on defacing national flags

The judgement might well be legally correct, but it certainly was not the court of final appeal’s finest moment, South China Morning Post said in an editorial, adding some parts of the verdict might raise charges that political considerations played a role.

As the verdict came soon after the `Right of Abode’ ruling in favour of the government, the paper described it a "balancing act" and noted its acquiring political connotations was predictable.

In a related report, the paper noted that during the past 11 months, the court of final appeal had come under attack from experts here, prompting a constitutional crisis. According to public perception, it said, some government decisions, particularly that to take the right of abode issue to Beijing, had effect on judicial decisions.

The Hong Kong Standard, another leading newspaper, however, said that with the ruling, the two-and-half-year-old Special Administrative Region (SAR) had successfully met major constitutional challenges.

Through this ruling and that on the right of abode, less than two weeks ago, Hong Kong’s highest court confirmed a new constitutional order that prevailed over the common law system, the paper noted.

These two rulings by the court of final appeal, should make the SAR and the central governments feel safer in meeting the future legal challenges, the paper said, adding that the judiciary and the administration appeared to now share more of a philosophy for ruling Hong Kong, helpful to its stability.

On December 3, Hong Kong’s court of final appeal agreed with the Hong Kong government that mainland China’s top parliamentary body, the National People’s Congress (NPC) standing committee, had absolute power to interpret the basic law, Hong Kong’s mini constitution.

It stripped away the right of abode which it had conferred on Chinese mainland-born children of Hong Kong permanent residents in January.