The Hong Kong government has rejected the visa renewal application of the Financial Times’ Asia news editor, the first time an FT journalist has had such accreditation denied by local authorities.
Victor Mallet, a veteran foreign correspondent and author who has run the FT’s news operations in Asia for almost two years, applied to renew his work visa last month but his application was rejected without any explanation.
“The Hong Kong authorities have rejected an application to renew the work visa of Victor Mallet, Asia news editor at the Financial Times,” the FT said. “This is the first time we have encountered this situation in Hong Kong. We have not been given a reason for the rejection.”
Mr Mallet, who moved to Hong Kong after serving as the FT’s bureau chief in New Delhi, is the first vice-president of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong.
He was the acting president in August when the FCC came under attack from Chinese and Hong Kong officials for hosting a talk by the leader of the pro-independence Hong Kong National party, which was later gazetted as an illegal organisation because it was deemed a threat to “national security”.
The FCC said it was “deeply concerned” about the “extraordinary” decision to deny Mr Mallet a visa.
“Hong Kong rightly prides itself on its reputation as a place where the rule of law applies and where freedom of speech is protected by law,” it said. “In the absence of any reasonable explanation, the FCC calls on the Hong Kong authorities to rescind their decision.”
The UK government has called for an explanation on the visa decision from authorities in the former British colony. “We are concerned by the rejection of Mr Mallet’s visa renewal. We have asked the Hong Kong government for an urgent explanation. Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and its press freedoms are central to its way of life, and must be fully respected,” the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said.
The US consulate general called the decision “deeply troubling”, adding that it was “especially disturbing because it mirrors problems faced by international journalists in the mainland”.
China’s foreign ministry said the Hong Kong government had “the power to decide whether to approve applications for the renewal of work visas to Hong Kong”, adding that “no foreign country has any right to interfere”.
The denial of a visa for Mr Mallet, who has been working in Hong Kong since October 2016, comes as the civic freedoms and autonomy promised to semi-autonomous Hong Kong by Beijing are under increasing pressure.
Patrick Poon, a Hong Kong-based researcher at Amnesty International, the human rights campaign group, said he believed this was the first time a foreign correspondent has had their visa denied in recent years in Hong Kong and that the impact would be “chilling”.
“If he can be denied a visa only because he chaired an event, we need to ask what’s happened to freedom of expression in Hong Kong,” said Mr Poon. “We see similar practices by the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing, and it’s very worrying.”
Chris Yeung, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, said he believed such a visa denial was “unprecedented” and would add to the “psychological pressure” on local journalists, as well as foreign correspondents.
The Chinese government had asked the FCC to cancel a talk by Andy Chan, the leader of the Hong Kong National party, on August 14, claiming the event was damaging to China’s national security.
But the club, which has a wide membership of journalists, diplomats, business people and Chinese officials, went ahead with the talk. That sparked several small protests and a flood of condemnations from the Chinese government and officials in Hong Kong.
The Chinese foreign ministry at the time attacked the FCC for “blatantly interfering with the rule of law” and “abusing freedom of the press and speech”.
Jason Ng, a lawyer and the president of PEN Hong Kong, an organisation that promotes freedom of expression, accused the Hong Kong government of “retaliation” against the FCC.
“When organisations like a press club need to constantly look over their shoulders and think twice about who they can invite to talk and what topic they can talk about, that’s self-censorship,” he said.
Additional reporting by Nicolle Liu
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