A Hong Kong judge on Friday, denied a government request for an injunction banning "Glory to Hong Kong", a defiant anthem that emerged from the city's huge pro-democracy protests in 2019.

The Hong Kong government had in June requested an injunction order so that the song, would be banned from being disseminated or performed "with the intention of inciting others to commit secession or with a seditious intent".

Giving the judgment, Judge Anthony Chan wrote in his ruling on Friday that freedom of expression was a "highly important right" and that an injunction could cause "chilling effects" to innocent third parties.

"I cannot be satisfied that it is just and convenient to grant the injunction," said Chan, who is among a pool of jurists handpicked by the government to handle security cases.

"I believe that the intrusion to freedom of expression here, especially to innocent third parties, is what is referred to in public law as 'chilling effects'," he wrote.

"Whilst I entirely accept that no chilling effect is intended behind the Injunction, it is the duty of the Court to keep in mind that there is a whole spectrum of Hong Kong people" with varying degrees of knowledge about the injunction, Chan explained.

"Glory to Hong Kong" first emerged in August 2019 when the city was undergoing massive and at times violent pro-democracy demonstrations, with millions taking to the streets to demand political freedoms.

Access24 reports that the song has raised the Hong Kong government's ire in recent months, as it has been repeatedly mistaken as the city's anthem, playing at international sports competitions.

Following the 2019 protests, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law, quelling political dissent, as courts penalised multiple people for performing it in public or circulating it online.