{"id":318,"date":"2025-05-22T14:13:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T14:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resilienceinnovationlab.org\/?p=318"},"modified":"2025-05-30T14:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T14:17:13","slug":"increasing-constraints-on-the-information-environment-in-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resilienceinnovationlab.org\/?p=318","title":{"rendered":"Increasing Constraints on the Information Environment in Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The information environment in Hong Kong has been further tightened in light of recent developments. The Ombudsman<\/a>, traditionally regarded as a government watchdog, has removed decades\u2019 worth of annual and investigative reports, along with other documents dated prior to 2023, from its website. The stated rationale for this action is the need for more effective website management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, the publicly accessible archive of the Ombudsman\u2019s reports has been reduced from the previous ten years to merely three. Access to reports predating 2023 is now restricted and only available upon written request. Lawmakers from the \u201cpatriots-only\u201d legislature<\/a> have criticised this move, viewing it as a step backwards in terms of transparency and access to public information. Even Patrick Nip<\/a>, former Secretary for the Civil Service in Hong Kong, commented that good governance \u201cemphasises transparency, public engagement, and accountability\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, the Ombudsman defended<\/a> the decision as an effort to enhance the user experience of its website. However, this explanation has failed to alleviate public concerns that access to government data is being increasingly curtailed at the expense of transparency and accountability. The move also mirrors common strategies employed by authoritarian regimes to censor and control the flow of information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, information professionals\u2014particularly journalists\u2014are facing new forms of harassment from government agencies. This week, the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) held a press conference alleging that the city\u2019s tax authorities<\/a> had targeted at least 20 journalists, including current or former media executives and their family members, with audits conducted without sufficient evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The head of the HKJA<\/a> argued that such actions by the government \u201cdo have a negative effect on Hong Kong\u2019s press freedom\u2026 Press freedom not only means the ability for media and journalists to operate safely, physically\u2026 It also involves the business environment\u2014whether it is sustainable for them to continue operating.\u201d Reporters Without Borders<\/a>, an NGO that monitors global press freedom, condemned the actions of the Hong Kong government as an \u201cintimidation tactic to dissuade independent journalists from reporting\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Administrative harassment is a well-known tactic employed by authoritarian governments to intimidate critics and dissenters using regulatory and legal measures, often under the guise of commercial or civil procedures. Such tactics allow governments to exert pressure on targeted individuals\u2014many of whom may have limited resources\u2014without formally charging them with speech-related offences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent developments serve to confirm the concerns we raised in our earlier report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We encourage you to share this report with stakeholders in your network and to continue monitoring the authorities\u2019 performance in upholding the freedom to access and disseminate information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download the Chinese version of the report here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download the English version of the report here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The information environment in Hong Kong has been further tightened in light of recent developments. The Ombudsman, traditionally regarded as a government watchdog, has removed decades\u2019 worth of annual and investigative reports, along with other documents dated prior to 2023, from its website. The stated rationale for this action is the need for more effective […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":false,"iawp_total_views":10,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1],"tags":[20,21,24,9,18],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publications","category-uncategorized","tag-freedom","tag-freedom-of-information","tag-hong-kong","tag-human-rights","tag-report"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resilienceinnovationlab.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resilienceinnovationlab.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resilienceinnovationlab.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resilienceinnovationlab.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resilienceinnovationlab.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/resilienceinnovationlab.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":320,"href":"https:\/\/resilienceinnovationlab.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions\/320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resilienceinnovationlab.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resilienceinnovationlab.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resilienceinnovationlab.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}