After months of reassurance that Beijing’s national security law would not affect Hong Kong’s free press, the government has denied a visa to local media outlet, the Hong Kong Free Press.The English-language outlet had sought to employ a new editor, Aaron Mc Nicholas, an Irish journalist already based in Hong Kong. However the immigration department rejected an application to transfer his work visa after an almost six-month wait, without giving an official reason.
It’s believed to be the first time Hong Kong immigration has rejected a journalist’s work visa for a local title, but comes amid widespread reports of delays with visa applications from foreign journalists. In 2018 the department prompted considerable outcry when it refused a visa renewal and then entry to the territory for the Financial Times’s Victor Mallett. The government declined to provide reasons at the time, but it was widely believed to be connected to Mallet chairing a talk by a Hong Kong independence activist at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club.
Hong Kong Free Press’s editor-in-chief, Tom Grundy, said it appeared they were “targeted under the climate of the new security law and because of our impartial and fact-based coverage”. Grundy said the immigration department did not answer why Mc Nicholas’s visa was refused, but said only that the city has an open policy on employing skilled overseas professionals.After police arrested media tycoon and pro-democracy backer Jimmy Lai and raided the newsroom of his paper, Apple Daily, there were expectations authorities would next turn to smaller online outlets, known for independent and critical coverage.
Hong Kong Free Press has reported extensively on the protests and pro-democracy movement in recent years, and has been among multiple voices criticising the national security laws. It has been accused of being “very biased and prejudiced” by chief executive Carrie Lam. McNicholas also extensively covered the protests and the subsequent government crackdown and implementation of the national security law.
Source: The Guardian
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