The Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) in Hong Kong has scrapped its annual Human Rights Press Awards (HRPAs) just days before it was due to announce the winners out of fear that it would contravene the territory’s National Security Law.
The decision sparked a number of resignations from the club’s press freedom committee, and public criticism from journalists and former award winners, who described the move as sad, and evidence that it could no longer serve in its mission to defend the press.
FCC president Keith Richburg told members in an e-mail on Monday that the club was “suspending” the award pending further review.
“Over the past 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,” it said. “This was a very tough decision to reach. We explored a variety of other options, but could not find a feasible way forward.”
The FCC board held a meeting on Saturday, where the question of suspension was reportedly put forward and some members shared legal advice they had obtained, which said that the club and individuals related to it would be at risk of being investigated by national security police if the awards went ahead.
A majority of board members voted in favor of a suspension.
There was reportedly extensive discussion at the meeting of the club’s dual roles to support foreign correspondents in Hong Kong, and as a business that operates a social venue in the territory with more than 100 employees and a large number of non-journalist associate members.
Following a meeting of the club’s press freedom committee the next day, several members announced their resignation from the committee over the decision.
Washington Post bureau chief Shibani Mahtani, a member of the press freedom committee for three years and also a board member, urged club members and others who benefited from it to “take a long hard look at the club they pay to belong to.”
“As a former winner and judge of the HRPA, I feel nothing but the deepest regret and do not stand by this decision,” she said.
“[The suspension] is emblematic, too, of the self-censorship many institutions feel forced to subject themselves to in today’s Hong Kong, whether with or without their merits, and entirely indicative of how the National Security Law has changed the landscape for all,” she said.
“I have strongly recommended to the FCC president and its current board that we should seriously rethink the role of the press freedom committee, and the club as a whole. I believe it is no longer able to serve its core mission: to defend and promote the press,” she added.
Timothy McLaughlin, a contributing writer to the Atlantic and a former HRPA winner, said that he was sad and angered to see the award canceled.
McLaughlin added that it appeared the FCC had taken down a statement of its “core mission” from the front page of its Web site.
Independent Hong Kong journalist Sum Lok-kei (沈諾基) described the decision as self-censorship and “an insult to the outlets [and] journalists that still work in Hong Kong, especially outlets which officials have named [or] sent letters to before.”
The awards were due to be announced on World Press Freedom Day on Tuesday next week.
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