At least five local media outlets in Hong Kong and multiple journalists had their taxes from years ago audited on “unreasonable grounds,” a press association said on Wednesday.
Hong Kong’s press freedom ranking has plummeted since Beijing cracked down on dissent after huge, sometimes violent democracy protests in 2019.
The Hong Kong tax authorities alleged that a group of online outlets, reporters and some of their family members had failed to report their income in full from 2017 to 2019.
Photo: AFP
Backdated demands have been issued as a result, the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) said.
The association told reporters it believed the audits “were not based on sufficient evidence or reasonable grounds.”
The affected media outlets include Hong Kong Free Press, Inmedia and The Witness, a news site focused on covering court cases, as well as two others.
The tax department had claimed back money for “bizarre” reasons, including calculating nonexistent income from before one of the outlets was founded, HKJA said.
Selina Cheng (鄭嘉如), the association’s chair and a former Wall Street Journal reporter, said the association, herself and her parents were also affected.
“It does have a negative effect on Hong Kong’s press freedom,” Cheng told a news conference. “Press freedom not only means the ability for media and journalists to operate safely, physically... It also means the business environment, whether it is sustainable for them to operate.”
The Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department said it followed the legal process and that its actions were not aimed at specific industries, local media reported.
The department added that it would not comment on “individual cases.”
Hong Kong journalists rated the territory’s press freedom lower than ever in an annual survey last year, citing fears around sweeping national security laws.
More than 90 percent of journalists surveyed said the territory’s press freedom was “significantly” impacted by a domestic security law enacted in March last year that punishes crimes such as espionage and foreign interference.
Colloquially known as Article 23, it was the second such law enacted for the financial hub, following Hong Kong’s National Security Law, imposed by Beijing in 2020 after the democracy protests.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Hong Kong’s security laws “target a very small number of individuals who severely endanger national security, not law-abiding media reporters.”
Additional reporting by AP
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