Hong Kong press club halts human rights award

The Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club has canceled its annual human rights reporting award over fears it will violate repressive new laws, it announced on Monday.

FCC president Keith Richburg said in a statement that the club could not find a feasible way to award the prize without running afoul of new rules.

"Over the last two years, journalists in Hong Kong have been operating under new 'red lines' on what is and is not permissible, but there remain significant areas of uncertainty and we do not wish unintentionally to violate the law. This is the context in which we decided to suspend the awards," he said in a statement.

"The FCC intends to continue promoting press freedom in Hong Kong, while recognizing that recent developments might also require changes to our approach."

Among last year's award winners were DW correspondents Mathias Bölinger and Phoebe Kong, who won awards in the categories of "Documentary video - English" and "Short video - Chinese," respectively.

Broad restrictions on journalism

Following about a year of massive pro-democratic protests in Hong Kong, Beijing imposed a series of repressive measures in the former British territory. The national security laws include broad restrictions on democratic activities, freedom of speech and freedom of the press, forcing publishers and journalists to heavily self-censor under threat of jail terms. Unable to get the rules through Hong Kong's legislature, Beijing had to impose them on the territory. 

Former winners of the Human Rights Press Awards said they were disappointed by the decision, and members of the selection committee announced their resignation.

Timothy McLaughlin, who was on the committee and previously won the award, said the decision was "angering and sad."

Shibani Mahtani, who has served on the award committee for three years and was also a recipient, said the suspension showed that the club may not be able to serve its core purpose any more.

Mary Hui, who also resigned from the committee, highlighted the fact that the club appeared to have deleted its mission statement of "defend press freedom in Hong Kong and across the region" from its website.

In 2021, the awards recognized journalists that exposed government plots to extradite citizens, police brutality, government repression, coronavirus lockdowns in mainland China and human rights issues across Asia.

The awards have been handed out for the past 25 years.

The Reuters news agency reported that club president Richburg had earlier told the award committee that the decision was taken to protect its staff and members from legal risks, citing the minutes of a meeting.

The potential risks reportedly arose from proposed awards for Stand News, a liberal online news portal that shut down after several top editors were arrested on allegations of publishing seditious articles.

Edited by: Mark Hallam