"Over the past two years, journalists in Hong Kong have worked with new 'red lines' on what is and isn't allowed, but there remain significant areas of uncertainty and we don't want to unwittingly break the law. ", club chairman Keith Richburg said in a statement.
"It is in this context that we have decided to suspend the prices".
The move led to eight resignations from the Foreign Correspondents' Club Hong Kong (FCCHK) press freedom committee, four people familiar with the matter told AFP.
The FCCHK has held an annual human rights award for 26 years for reporting on this theme in Asia.
The cancellation was decided just weeks before this year's awards were announced, five of which were, according to insiders, to Stand News, a local media outlet that shut down at the end of last year after its main editors were charged with sedition.
The club's board has received a legal notice that it could face investigation for sedition or under Hong Kong's new national security law if it continues to present awards to Booth News.
"The fact that eight of us have resigned speaks volumes to the fact that we now believe our position is useless," Shibani Mahtani, one of the committee members who resigned, told AFP.
"I just think we should be sincere and intellectually honest about what we see in Hong Kong instead of pretending things are normal and we're still able to be a real press club," he said. she adds.
Hong Kong, which has been a bastion of press freedom in Asia, is facing an authoritarian takeover by China after massive democracy protests in 2019.
The entrance to the Hong Kong Foreign Press Club, April 26, 2022 Peter PARKS AFP
Three news outlets critical of the government, including the hugely popular tabloid Apple Daily, were forced to close after investigations under the National Security Act.
© 2022 AFP