Press Freedom
CPJ Updates
- Police raid Cairo offices of Turkish Anadolu News Agency, arrest at least 4
- Ugandan police harass and detain journalists covering opposition politician Bobi Wine
- Journalist Patricia Kayuni assaulted while covering protest in Malawi
- Missing radio anchor found dead in Mexico’s Michoacán state
- Sudan suspends four news outlets over alleged financial link to Bashir regime
- Colombian magazine Semana alleges military spied on its journalists
- Montenegro reporters Živković and Raičević charged with criminal incitement
- Malawi detains, charges 3 journalists seeking to cover EU delegation’s return
- Journalists threatened, assaulted while covering local politician in Sierra Leone
Reporter Without Borders
- Journalist found strangled in Pakistan’s Sindh province
- Another journalist attacked in Beirut
- Brazilian journalist murdered at home in Paraguay
- AmadNews director facing possible death penalty in Tehran trial
- Bulgarian journalists threatened, mocked by top officials
- Azerbaijani reporters harassed, attacked while trying to cover electoral fraud
- Northern Ireland: RSF welcomes progress in the investigation into the murder of Lyra McKee
- BBC Africa’s “disproportionate and dangerous” dismissal of a journalist
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.