'Democracy Walls' Taken Down On HKU Campus: Reports

The University of Hong Kong has taken down all the posters and banners displayed on the “democracy walls” around campus.

That’s according to reports carried by student publications Campus TV and Undergrad on Sunday.

Photos published on their social media showed that materials being torn down contained messages such as "Hongkongers, resist!", "HKU fawns on the communist party", "never forgive the Hong Kong police", and calls for a boycott of the MTR – or what was referred to by a poster as "the Communist Party's railway".

Campus TV reported that the Dean of Student Affairs, Sampson Tse, was present during the operation.

It quoted him as saying that the action was part of the school's decision in April to take back the management rights of facilities previously given to students.

In the April statement, HKU alleged that the student union had been using the campus "as a platform for its political propaganda", accusing it of making "inflammatory and potentially unlawful statements" against the university.

"It is not acceptable that the HKUSU.... disregards the university’s advice and the overall interests of the HKU community while taking advantage of the services and facilities offered by the university," the statement read.

"The HKUSU’s actions also bring legal risks to the university," it said.