(21 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hong Kong – 21 May 2025
1. Various of photojournalists taking photos of Selina Cheng, Chairperson of Hong Kong Journalists Association at briefing
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Selina Cheng, Chairperson, Hong Kong Journalists Association:
“I think it does have a negative effect on Hong Kong’s press freedom. Press freedom not only means the ability for media and journalists to operate safely, physically. It also means the level of information they can obtain, it also means the business environment, whether it is sustainable for them to operate.”
3. Cutaway of Cheng
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Selina Cheng, Chairperson, Hong Kong Journalists Association:
“In the case of Hong Kong, in the current case, if a number of media outlets or journalists are coming under financial duress created by unwarranted audits, then it does affect their ability to be able to work continually. As a union, we don’t believe that reporters should continue the work for free. Or if they have to subsidize their jobs at great personal financial cost. We don’t believe that.”
5. Wide of briefing
6. Reporter
7. Various of entrance to Hong Kong Journalists Association office
STORYLINE:
Hong Kong’s tax authorities targeted at least 20 people, including journalists, current or former heads of media organizations and their families, with audits without sufficient evidence, a leading media professional group said Wednesday as it raised concerns over the city’s press freedom.
Hong Kong Journalists Association chairperson Selina Cheng said the Inland Revenue Department accused the affected companies and individuals of failing to fully report their income years ago and issued backdated tax demands. Cheng called some of the department’s claims “strange” and “unreasonable."
Cheng said the moves added stress to journalists and media organisations and affected their daily operations.
“It does have a negative effect on Hong Kong’s press freedom,” Cheng told a news conference.
“Press freedom not only means the ability for media and journalists to operate safely, physically … It also means the business environment, whether it is sustainable for them to operate.”
In one case, the tax department alleged that a journalist had made a business registration and requested that they pay profit tax for a company they did not run — citing a business registration number that didn’t exist, she said. The department also asked to audit a company’s profit tax for a year before it was founded, she said.
In an email to The Associated Press, the Inland Revenue Department said it has established procedures to review the information provided by taxpayers and that it will follow up on cases in which information shows a possible breach of rules.
“The industry or background of a taxpayer has no bearing on such reviews,” it said, declining to comment on any case.
Hong Kong journalists have been navigating a narrowing space in recent years amid Beijing’s crackdown on dissent following massive anti-government protests that rocked the city in 2019.
Drastic political changes have created an increasingly restricted environment for them in the semi-autonomous Chinese city once regarded as a bastion of press freedom in Asia.
Cheng said the tax audits affected at least eight organizations, including independent media outlets like Hong Kong Free Press, alongside the Hong Kong Journalists Association and others.
At least 20 people, including her and her parents, were also impacted, she added.
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