(Hong Kong) Dozens of Hong Kong journalists have been victims of “systematic and organized” harassment and intimidation in recent weeks, including through leaks of personal information and death threats, the city’s Journalists Association said Friday.
Once known for its free press, Hong Kong has been falling in media freedom rankings for several years after Beijing cracked down on dissent following huge pro-democracy protests in 2019.
According to the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), members of its executive committee, 13 international and local media outlets and two educational institutions have been targeted by anonymous harassers since June.
“This kind of intimidation and harassment, which includes spreading false and defamatory content and making death threats, undermines press freedom in Hong Kong and we should not tolerate it,” the union’s president, Selina Cheng, said at a press conference.
His comments come a few days after the newspaper, which supported the views of democracy activists, Stand News and its two main editors were found guilty of “sedition”, the first such conviction since the former British colony returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
At least 15 journalists, including Mme Cheng, were targeted in anonymous emails or letters to family members, employers, landlords, schools, charities and private businesses, the HKJA said.
Some of the authors of these letters present themselves as “patriots”, the Association specified.
At least 36 journalists have had their personal information made public in Facebook groups, sometimes accompanied by death threats in the form of images of knives, blood and crosshairs.
There is no evidence that the harassment is coordinated by the state but its scale is “the most significant […] against journalists in Hong Kong that we have experienced so far,” Mr.me Cheng.
The HKJA stressed that it “will never tolerate such behaviour, nor will it allow bullying to succeed.”
The association said the harassers may have taken advantage of “leaks (of data) from the government” in particular and urged the authorities to investigate quickly.
A law was passed in Hong Kong in 2021 to criminalize the disclosure of other people’s personal data.
AFP has contacted Hong Kong police and privacy watchdog for comment.