A big "Yargh!" for pirate radio stations was issued in Hong Kong yesterday when the High Court rejected the Hong Kong government's bid to extend their injunction against Hong Kong's pro-democracy pirate radio station, Citizens Radio. "Mr Justice Hartmann said he could not see how airing programmes would affect public safety by interrupting emergency channels," the South China Morning Post reported.

Citizens Radio is a pro-democracy station that began broadcasting illegally about three years ago from Mongkok and can be heard all over Kowloon and on the internet. It broadcasts mostly call-in shows and occasional talks with local legislators and does so illegally after its application for a broadcast license was rejected by the HKSAR government with no reason given back in 2005. It most recently ran afoul of the law when the 76-year-old legendary legislator and democracy activist, Szeto Wah, appeared on the station to discuss the Tiananmen Square Massacre in May, 2007 and suddenly found himself charged with "knowingly becoming involved in the use of unlicensed communications equipment in order to transmit radio signals." Counter-charging the government with selective prosecution he vowed to go to jail before he'd admit wrongdoing. Eight other individuals have been charged due to their involvement with the pirate station.

After being slapped with the injunction while their case over the legality of their transmissions and the station's counter-claim that the denial of their license violated their freedom of expression wound their way through the courts, Citizens Radio broadcast in January of this year for one hour to give details about an upcoming march calling for democratic reforms. No one was arrested, but police officers at the station handed out copies of the injunction to everyone who participated in the show. Then, later in January, Eastern Court magistrate Douglas Yau Tak-hong ruled that the denial of the broadcast license was unconstitutional and that all charges against the station and its guests should be dropped. However, he suspended his ruling after the prosecution informed him that the government would appeal the case.

Now that the extension of the injunction has been denied by the High Court, it looks likely that the case will eventually be dropped or slowly fade away over the next few months. Most heartening of all has been the fact that the approval ratings for the normally popular Secretary for Justice Wong Yan-lung dropped from 76% to 67% during this prosecution meaning that Hong Kongers are watching how this case is handled with great interest.

But a yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum are due to Hong Kong's High Court for ruling that the routine government blah against pirate radio stations (they may interfere with emergency broadcast signals and thereby endanger public safety) is about as firm an argument as a one-eyed pirate playing hop skotch on a peg leg made of noodles.

This is a complicated story with lots of suits and counter-suits so you can read the original coverage here:

Bid to extend the injunction is ruled to be poppycock by High Court.

Denial of license ruled "unconstitutional."

Szeto Wah charged.

Hong Kong Citizens Radio Official Page (Chinese only)

HKCR wikipedia page

Public confidence in Justice Wong drops.