The Association of Journalists Hong Kong expressed concern that the city's new national security law that will take effect this year will have “far-reaching implications” for the press and urged the local government to guarantee the protection of this group.
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Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee announced in January his plan to enact a law based on the “article 23″ of the city's Basic Law, which plans to expand its legal powers to quell dissent following the mobilizations anti-government protests that took place in 2019.
Since the return of Hong Kong to China by the British Government in 1997, the territory has been governed under the principle ofand “one country, two systems”, whichIt guarantees the separation of the legal and judicial structures of the continental part.
Under its mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law, the former colony is responsible for enacting its own law to address seven crimes related to lto security, including treason, insurrection, theft of state secrets, sabotage and espionage.
The Journalists Association (HKJA) asked the authorities, in a proposal shared on Saturday and published today by the local media Hong Kong Free Press, for clearer definitions of the provisions related to said crimes, among them external interference and the theft of state secrets.
The group states that the concept of “state secret” is too broad, as the press receives leaks from government sources, for example regarding personnel changes and political announcements, and it is difficult to determine whether such sources reveal this information with legal authority.
Regarding the crime of external interference, the association was concerned about the vagueness of this definition and raised doubts about whether attending events financed by business chambers of other countries or organizations with foreign ties could constitute “collaboration with foreign forces.”
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“We believe that, when enacting the law, the government should avoid situations where journalists become involved in legal problems due to their regular work of news gathering, information or comments,” read the HKJA letter.
For its part, the Hong Kong Federation of Journalists, a pro-system group created in 1968, said in response to the HKJA's presentation that it “does not represent the views of the Hong Kong media industry at all and has misrepresented facts and attempted to create confusion and panic.”
The new text is independent of the national security law imposed by Beijing, approved in June 2020 after months of protests and riots in favor of democracy, in which secession, subversion, collusion with foreigners are classified as crimes. and terrorism.
Previously, in 2003, there was an attempt to enact this same regulation, but it was put on hold after a mobilization that is estimated to have been attended by hundreds of thousands of residents.
According to a report published by the organization Human Rights Now, after the promulgation of the National Security Law more than three years ago, “some 250 activists and critics of the Government have been detained, more than 150 prosecuted and all those accused in trials already concluded. have been found guilty,” illustrating the repression of dissent.
Likewise, hundreds of civil society organizations and countless activists have ended their activities or left the city, including political groups, non-governmental organizations,
EFE
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