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HONG KONG — In a rare bright spot for media freedom in Hong Kong, a panel of judges on the territory’s top court unanimously voted Monday to overturn the conviction of award-winning journalist Choy Yuk-ling, also known as Bao Choy, who had investigated the police response to a 2019 mob attack that left dozens injured.
The case against Choy sparked outrage and concern among local journalists over the territory’s shrinking media freedoms. She was convicted in 2021 of improperly accessing vehicle records in connection with the attack.
Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal said in a written judgment that “in drawing the inference that the appellant knowingly made a false statement, substantial and grave injustice has been done to her.”
A Hong Kong journalist exposed police failures. A court found her guilty of a crime.
Choy, a former producer and freelancer for public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong, had sought the vehicle records for a documentary about the police response to the attack, an inflection point during the wave of protests that swept through Hong Kong in 2019.
The attack, by a group of rod-wielding assailants against anti-government protesters and bystanders in a subway station, undermined confidence in the police, who arrived only after the mob had fled the scene.
Choy had applied for the records of vehicles that had been there, a standard investigative practice for Hong Kong journalists. The online records application required a declaration of purpose from a set of choices in a drop-down menu that did not include media use. Choy selected “other traffic and transport related issues.”
She was found guilty in 2021 of making false statements and fined about $775. The day before the verdict, her documentary episode, titled “7.21: Who Owns the Truth,” won one of Hong Kong’s highest journalistic honors, the Kam Yiu-yu Press Freedom Award.
Outside the court on Monday, Choy told reporters that the judgment affirmed the importance of Hong Kong’s constitutionally protected freedoms of press and speech.
“Over the last few years, we might have found that many things have disappeared quietly,” Choy said. “But I believe our beliefs in our hearts can’t be taken away that easily.”
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The Hong Kong Journalists Association welcomed the decision to overturn Choy’s conviction.
“The only thing worth celebrating in this case is that it allowed a journalist who has always been innocent to finally obtain the verdict of innocence,” the group said in a statement on Monday.
Hong Kong’s independent media landscape has been decimated since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the city in June 2020. At least 12 news outlets have closed amid heightened scrutiny, according to the International Federation of Journalists. Pro-democracy outlets such as Apple Daily have been closed following police raids under the auspices of the law.
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Multiple journalists are also facing charges under the law, which punishes actions deemed to threaten national security or incite subversion with sentences of up to life in prison.
The ruling proes a boost for Hong Kong’s journalists, according to Clement So, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
“The ruling is a breath of relief to many in the industry,” So said. “It upholds journalistic research methods that have long been viewed as reasonable and practiced across generations of reporters.”
As Beijing dampens Hong Kong’s once outspoken media scene, some journalists have launched alternative outlets, publishing features on Patreon, a platform for content creators. Choy co-founded a news and podcast platform called the Collective HK this year.
Hong Kong’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index has plummeted since the law was imposed, according to Reporters Without Borders, which compiles the rankings. The territory, which was ranked 18th 20 years ago and 80th in 2021, is now ranked 140th out of 180 places.
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Tobin reported from Taipei, Taiwan.
