Press Freedom
CPJ Updates
- Digital safety: Protecting against online harassment
- Radio journalist gunned down in Somalia
- Video journalist killed in Maoist rebel attack in Chhattisgarh
- Cameroon detains journalist for a week, fails to disclose charge
- Russia uses 'foreign agents' law to hit independent outlet with massive fine
- Getting Away with Murder
- Impunity in the murders of journalists emboldens censorship
- CPJ calls on Trump to dial back rhetoric against media and critics
- CPJ Safety Advisory: Covering the migrant caravan in Mexico
Reporter Without Borders
- SYRIA: NGOs write to UN about Syrian journalist’s disappearance five years ago
- TV station owner abducted in Jalalabad
- US — #WeeklyAddress: December 3 – December 9: CNN’s New York offices evacuate after receiving bomb threat
- Press freedom violations recounted in real time January 2018
- China: After evasive answers, RSF and a coalition of NGOs are demanding Google abandon Project Dragonfly
- Polish authorities stepping up harassment of independent media
- After long jail term, Moroccan journalist hit by heavy damages award
- Yemeni journalist held by military intelligence in Hadramout province
Hong Kong Rejects FT Journalist’s Visa
NEW YORK October 5, 2018—The Hong Kong government has triggered a press freedom controversy by refusing to renew the work visa of a veteran Financial Times journalist after he moderated a discussion in August with pro-independence activist Andy Chan Ho-tin at the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC).
The Financial Times responded with a statement: “The Hong Kong authorities have rejected an application to renew the work visa of Victor Mallet, Asia news editor at the Financial Times. This is the first time we have encountered this situation in Hong Kong. We have not been given a reason for the rejection.”
The UK government has also registered its concern through a Foreign and Commonwealth Office statement: “Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and its press freedoms are central to its way of life and must be fully respected.”
The Alliance of Hong Kong Media created a petition demanding an explanation from Hong Kong authorities as to why Mallet’s visa was not renewed, “Refusing a visa in this case, to a bona fide journalist working for one of the world’s leading newspapers, sets a terrible precedent for Hong Kong’s reputation as a place where the rule of law applies and where freedom of speech is protected by law…In the absence of any reasonable explanation, we call on the authorities to rescind their decision and allow Mr. Mallet to continue to work for the Financial Times in Hong Kong and serve as FCC First Vice President.”
The Overseas Press Club is an international association of journalists based in New York City that works to encourage the highest standards in journalism, to educate the next generation of foreign correspondents and to promote international press freedom and the well-being of colleagues in the field.