Hong Kong police arrest journalist and activist over alleged ‘seditious’ acts

Hong Kong police have arrested two people including a journalist for allegedly acting “with seditious intent”, authorities said, with local media identifying the pair as an independent journalist and an activist.

While authorities only said the suspects were a 37-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman, local media identified the pair as independent journalist reporter Tang Ho-wing and activist Lee Ying-chi. Officers wearing vests labelled “NSD”, for the National Security Department, led Mr Tang in handcuffs to a van from a residential building, images published by local media showed.

The arrests were part of a series of operations linked to an incident on August 31 outside Prince Edward metro station, police said in a statement. That evening, police discovered several people standing outside the station “holding bouquets and shouting slogans”, the statement said. Six others were also arrested over the same offence earlier this month and have since been released on bail.

“If journalists can be arrested merely for reporting on-site or because their coverage diverges from the official narrative, all frontline reporters will inevitably bear the same risks when covering public events in the future,” the HKJA press union said in a statement.

Beh Li Yi, Asia-Pacific director for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said of the arrest of Mr Tang, urging authorities “must release him immediately and stop intimidating journalists for doing their jobs”. The organization Reporters Without Borders also condemned the arrest as “the latest sign of the criminalisation of journalism” in the Chinese city.