Journalists from more than a dozen media outlets in Hong Kong have been harassed and targeted in what the city’s largest journalist association said was a “systemic and organised attack” over recent months.
The harassment included death threats, and threatening and defamatory complaint letters being sent to reporters’ families and their employers, as well as landlords and neighbours, the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) said.
Selina Cheng, the chair of the HKJA, told a press conference on Friday that the association had observed a “severe wave of trolling and harassment” between June and August, including emails and letters sent to workplaces, social media accounts and home addresses. The letters threatened people’s personal safety, connections and employment. Some had been pressured to give up their profession or union positions, she said.
Cheng said: “This type of intimidation and harassment, which includes sharing false and defamatory content and death threats, damages press freedom in Hong Kong and we should not tolerate it. HKJA and I believe all journalists in Hong Kong welcome criticism and debate. This is not it.”
Employees from at least 15 international and local outlets including Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), InMedia and HK Feature were targeted, along with members of the HKJA executive committee and journalistic education institutions. Cheng said it appeared the harassment was aimed at journalists “as a community” rather than specific individuals.
Cheng said the main form of harassment involved similarly worded anonymous complaints “from people who proclaimed themselves as ‘patriots’”. Some recipients were told they could be breaching national security laws by continuing to associate with the journalists. Letters sent to smaller organisations resembled “ransom letters”, while other messages included threatening motifs and pictures, or personal information posted to Wikipedia. The HKJA said it was concerned about how personal information and addresses had been obtained.
Since the government’s crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and the introduction of the national security law, the city’s once free media has become increasingly constrained. Journalists have come under increasing pressure, with major outlets such as Apple Daily and Stand News forced to close, journalists and editors prosecuted, and visas denied to foreign reporters.
In a statement published on Friday, HKFP condemned what it called a “recent surge in online and offline harassment of independent media in Hong Kong”.
The outlet said anonymous letters had been sent to the landlord of HKFP’s director and editor-in-chief, Tom Grundy, and property agencies last week “containing defamatory claims, falsities and threats of ‘unimaginable consequences’ and ‘collateral damage’ unless he was evicted from the property and district”.
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The agencies and landlord ignored the threats, which Grundy reported to police on Saturday. HKFP said it was the third time the outlet had made police reports in recent years related to harassment and intimidation, and urged the authorities to investigate thoroughly.
Cheng said the HKJA had contacted Meta and the Wikimedia Foundation, which had both responded immediately and launched investigations. She said Wikimedia had found one user who had posted personal information from multiple accounts and had been blocked. She said the HKJA had also reported incidents to police and had not ruled out legal action.