Political censorship of the manifestos of Macau election candidates

In the 2013 Legislative Election, the Electoral Affairs Commission (CAEAL) censored the election manifestos of candidates.[1] In the booklets of candidates’ manifesto to be distributed to the voters by the government, the CAEAL redacted paragraphs which it sees politically sensitive[2].

The manifesto booklets are one of the means of candidates’ communications with the electorates. The CAEAL rejected the accusation of exercising political censorship. The CAEAL defended that the redacted paragraphs were “political demands” rather than “political aims”.[3]

The Macau Research Group and the New Macau Association suggest the UN Human Rights Committee ask Macau, China to explain the objective criteria in censoring the manifestos of election candidates.

This article is an excerpt from a human rights report on Macau jointly submitted by the Macau Research Group and the New Macau Association to the UN Human Rights Committee in 2020. See here for the full report.

[1] Jason Chao, “Objection to CAEAL’s refusal to withdraw censorship on Liberals’ platform,” 21 August 2013, https://medium.com/jason-chaos-depository/objection-to-caeals-refusal-to-withdraw-censorship-on-liberals-platform-5993dc7ec428.

[2] These paragraphs concern the demand that principal officials should step down and face criminal investigation for corruption.

[3] In the Portuguese language, it reads “political programme” and resembles the meaning of “platform” or “manifesto” in English. The CAEAL distorted the equivalent “政綱” (zhèng gāng), literally means “political aims”, in the Chinese version of the law to exclude the paragraphs that it considers sensitive.