In a rare victory for journalism amid a crackdown on the news media in Hong Kong, the city’s top court on Monday overturned the conviction of a prominent reporter who produced a documentary critical of the police.
Choi Yuk-ling, also known as Bao Choi, is known for making investigative documentaries examining police behavior in Hong Kong in 2019, when the city was rocked by months of anti-government protests.
Among the documentaries he has produced is an award-winning episode of “Hong Kong Connection”, a news program for the city’s public broadcaster RTHK. The episode examines who was behind the mob attack on a group of protesters and commuters at a railway station on July 21, 2019, injuring 45 people, and why the police were slow to respond.
Ms. Choi used a public database to look up the license plates of vehicles caught on video transporting the suspected attackers and tracked down community leaders in Hong Kong’s outlying villages. She was arrested in 2020 and found guilty the following year of making false statements to obtain car registration documents. The court ordered her to pay a fine of 6,000 Hong Kong dollars, about $775. She later appealed against the sentence.
On Monday, five judges of the Court of Final Appeal voted unanimously to overturn the conviction. They argued that Ms. Choi had not knowingly made a false statement, as many news media companies had filed similar requests for information. By sentencing Ms. Choi based on the conclusion that she had knowingly violated the law, the court said in its ruling, “a substantial and grave injustice has been done to her.”
Speaking to reporters outside court, Ms. Choi said she was happy with the outcome of the 30-month legal battle.
“It seems I haven’t been happy about anything in a long time,” he said. “Maybe a lot of people feel the same way. So let’s all enjoy this happy moment.”
Francis Lee, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the ruling was a hard-fought victory for Ms. Choi and a validation of journalists’ rights.
“One could say that journalists should not have been charged for using the car plate registry for reporting purposes in the first place, and the victory came only because of Chai’s courage and persistence,” he said.
Hong Kong Journalists Association Ms. Choi said his efforts “have helped protect the space that industry should have in searching public records.” We deeply respect Ms. Choi’s courage in defending press freedom through her actions.
Ms. Choi’s conviction in 2021 had a chilling effect on news outlets, Ronson Chan, president of the journalists’ group, said in an interview. But even if that conviction is overturned, Mr. Chan noted, journalists in the city will face severe restrictions under a national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020. That law makes it illegal to incite hatred against the government, making journalists face a vaguely defined crime. If their reports criticize the authorities.
Broader conditions for independent journalism remain a challenge in Hong Kong, with laws criminalizing “seditious publications”. Some independent outlets in the city have remained closed since the attack. Editors and writers face long trials on their work.
Ms Choi co-founded The Collective HK, an independent media outlet, in February, pledging to “monitor the rich and powerful”. He received a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 2022.
“In recent years, we find that a lot of things have disappeared without a word, but I believe it is very difficult to remove the inner conviction,” he said on Monday.