Authorities in Hong Kong detained Tang Ho-wing (鄧浩榮), founder of the online outlet Boom News, for 48 hours last week on suspicion of “incitement by spreading misinformation,” according to local media reports.
Tang was the first journalist to be arrested for sedition under Hong Kong’s 2024 security laws, the local corollary to Beijing’s national security legislation passed in 2021.
Tang’s outlet Boom News operates largely on social media, where its accounts have more than 60,000 followers on Instagram. “Please join Patreon to support independent journalists and uphold what remains of our struggling press freedom,” the account’s bio section reads.
Local media reported that Tang was arrested in connection with Boom’s coverage of an event commemorating the anniversary of August 31, 2019, when riot police stormed a city subway station and beat protesters as they attempted to flee onto train cars.
According to the local authorities, people gathered outside a subway station to carry flowers and chant slogans that are now considered sedition under Hong Kong law.
The arrest is the latest in a string of repressive actions taken by authorities in Hong Kong, where independent journalism once flourished. Earlier this year, the courts sentenced Jimmy Lai (黎智英), founder of the pro-democracy media outlet Apple Daily, to 20 years in prison on national security charges.
Boom News’ reporting on the August 31 gathering showed people displaying yellow umbrellas, as well as the logo of Apple Daily, both symbols of the movement to protect freedoms in Hong Kong that the Beijing authorities have almost entirely extinguished.
Tang was released on bail at midnight on October 2, according to Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom watchdog group.
“We are appalled by the arrest of Tang Ho-wing,” said Aleksandra Bielakowska, advocacy manager for Reporters Without Borders’ Asia-Pacific bureau. “His case is yet another demonstration of how national security proceedings are weaponised to silence independent news professionals in Hong Kong.”
Hong Kong authorities said that two people had been arrested last week. The South China Morning Post identified the second activist as Lee Ying-chi (李盈姿).
“If journalists can be arrested merely for reporting on-site or because their coverage diverges from the official narrative, all frontline reporters will inevitably bear the same risks when covering public events in the future,” the Hong Kong Journalists Association said in a statement.
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