March 19, 2024

Hong Kong Plans to Expel a Financial Times Editor

“As Beijing constantly moves the redlines on what topics are ‘sensitive’ and out of bounds, the pressure for institutions and individuals to engage in self-censorship increases significantly,” Mr. Ng said.

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Victor Mallet, the Asia news editor of The Financial Times.CreditThe Financial Times

A spokeswoman for The New York Times, which has an office in Hong Kong, said that any politicization of the territory’s visa process “would be very worrying.”

“We’re troubled that the government in Hong Kong may be preparing to expel a respected colleague at The Financial Times whose application for a routine visa renewal has been rejected without explanation, and we are seeking clarification from the authorities,” said the spokeswoman, Eileen Murphy. “Hong Kong’s commitment to freedom of speech and rule of law has long attracted international businesses and news organizations to the city, including The New York Times.”

In August, the Foreign Correspondent’s Club hosted a talk by Andy Chan, the head of a political party that called for Hong Kong’s independence from China. The Hong Kong government had said beforehand that it planned to ban Mr. Chan’s tiny political party, the Hong Kong National Party, under a colonial-era law that allows the prohibition of groups for reasons of national security, public safety or public order.

Officials from Hong Kong and the Chinese central government criticized the event. Leung Chun-ying, who was the city’s top official from 2012 to 2017, went further. He likened the talk to hosting supporters of “racism, anti-Semitism or Nazism” and said the Hong Kong government should review the lease of the F.C.C.’s clubhouse in a historic, publicly owned building in central Hong Kong.

Mr. Mallet, a veteran Financial Times editor who was previously the newspaper’s bureau chief in New Delhi, said during Mr. Chan’s talk that the club considered it a “normal event” involving an important news story in Hong Kong.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/05/world/asia/hong-kong-victor-mallet-financial-times.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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