Hong Kong police revise definition of "journalists"

A riot police officer pushes a journalist's microphone with his baton during a protest in Hong Kong on July 21, 2020. AP Photo / Kin Cheung

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2 min

The Hong Kong police announced on Tuesday that they would no longer recognize journalists who are members of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) as full journalists, but only those accredited to the government or members of a internationally recognized press.

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With our correspondent in Hong Kong,

Florence de Changy

In the former British colony, the announcement made on Tuesday by the Hong Kong police has cast a new chill in its relations with the press.

During the raid on the opposition newspaper

Apple Daily

on August 10, the police had already sorted out the media they considered "reasonable" and the others.

Reuters and Hong Kong Public Radio had not been admitted.

For the police, it is therefore a question of cleaning up the ranks of those they call "false journalists" who by their presence complicate the task during dispersal operations.

But several serious incidents during the months of violent confrontations between police and demonstrators were precisely documented thanks to the presence on the spot of students of journalism.

Notably the first shot fired at very close range at a young protester, and more recently, the brutal knocking down of a 12-year-old schoolgirl by several police officers.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) has not stopped denouncing police abuses against journalists since the start of the events of 2019. An Indonesian journalist thus lost an eye. that she was covering a demonstration and several journalists were injured, arrested and fined in the performance of their duties.

HKJA and six other organizations called on the police to reverse their decision. 

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  • Hong Kong

  • Media

  • Freedom of press