Art council ‘cautious’ in using public funds, reduce risk of breaching national security law: Kenneth Fok

Hong Kong’s Art Development Council chief said on Thursday that the official art body has to be “especially cautious” about its use of public funds, while reducing the risk of potentially breaching the national security law.

He was commenting on the “financial drama” faced by the Hong Kong Federation of Drama Societies after the Council decided to pulled the plug on its subsidy.

Read more: Financial drama as arts council pulls subsidy for awards

Speaking to reporters today, Kenneth Fok Kai-kong, the chairperson of the Council and a lawmaker, said the arts body was government-funded and hence had to be “especially cautious” about its use of public funds.

“We constantly review our mechanisms with the government to see if we can do better, and in distributing resources, if the HKADC can reduce the risk of potentially breaching the law, or even the national security law as far as possible,” he said, adding that the Council is not in a place to judge whether certain people or events have broken the law.