Explained: All About Hong Kong's New National Security Laws
NDTV
The bill provides for public interest defences, but the threshold appears high: "making the disclosure manifestly outweighs the public interest served by not making the disclosure".
Hong Kong's government on Friday unveiled its proposed national security bill, following a month-long public consultation that ended last week. City leaders want it to be swiftly passed, potentially within weeks.
The package, known as Article 23, is designed to update or create new laws to prohibit treason, sabotage, sedition, the theft of state secrets and espionage. It also potentially tightens control over foreign political bodies and organisations operating in the city, through provisions defining "external forces" and outlawing "external interference".
Some lawyers analysing the draft said, at first glance, elements of the revised sentences for the offences are similar to Western ones but some provisions, such as those for sedition and state secrets, were broader and potentially tougher.
