A Hong Kong journalist who was prosecuted over investigating an attack on democracy supporters by government loyalists yesterday won a prestigious press prize, even after her employer backed out of the awards.
Choy Yuk-ling (蔡玉玲), a former producer with Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), was last month found guilty of “knowingly making a false statement” to access vehicle license plate ownership records — a conviction that was decried by media groups as an assault on public interest journalism.
Yesterday, Choy and five colleagues won the Chinese-language documentary award at the annual Human Rights Press Awards for their work Who Owns the Truth?
The awards recognize human rights reporting across Asia and have been running for 25 years.
Judges praised the RTHK documentary for “chasing the smallest clues, interrogating the powerful without fear or favor,” and described the 23-minute documentary as “an investigative reporting classic.”
The July 2019 attack in the district of Yuen Long by a gang of men armed with clubs — and the police’s failure to respond quickly enough — was a turning point in the huge and often violent pro-democracy protests that year, further hammering public trust in the police force and territory leaders.
RTHK used footage from witnesses and security cameras, as well as interviews and vehicle license plate searches, to piece together events.
It uncovered new details about the alleged attackers, some of whom have links to politically influential rural committees that support Beijing.
It also said that police failed to respond to the buildup of stick-wielding men, ferried into the district by specific vehicles that evening, hours before the attack.
Hong Kong maintains a publicly accessible license plate database long used by journalists, including pro-Beijing news outlets, but authorities introduced a rule change, which meant that journalists can no longer make the searches.
Choy, 37, faced up to six months in jail, but was ultimately fined HK$6,000 (US$770). She plans to appeal her conviction.
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