Press Freedom Decline: Reporters Without Borders Deported Amid Article 23 Fallout

According to a Reporters Without Borders spokesman, she was detained and deported without being given any reason when she arrived in Chinese territory.

Hong Kong — Reporters Without Borders stated that a member of its organization was deported from Hong Kong on Wednesday, citing a “new decline” in press freedom in the Chinese territory.

Taiwan-based Reporters Without Borders advocacy officer Aleksandra Bielakowska was held for six hours at Hong Kong International Airport, the Paris-based organization stated in a statement. Before she was deported without charge or trial, her belongings were searched and she was questioned three times.

It was the first time any of Reporters Without Borders’ representatives had been turned away from the airport or held there, according to the organization.

Director of campaigns for the organization Rebecca Vincent stated, “We are appalled by this unacceptable treatment of our colleague, who was simply trying to do her job.”

The Hong Kong Immigration Department stated on Friday that each immigration matter was handled in compliance with the law, but it was unable to comment on specific instances.

Article 23, a local national security law that Hong Kong passed this month, focuses on foreign meddling and other offenses and expands on a more general national security statute Beijing imposed in 2020.

Officials from China and Hong Kong claim that both legislation were required to bring peace back to the city following months of unrest and occasionally violent anti-government demonstrations in 2019.

Critics, however, contend that the new law will further worsen the state of civil rights in Hong Kong, a former British colony that surrendered to Chinese administration in 1997 with the assurance that its political liberties would be maintained for 50 years.

Polish national Bielakowska was in Hong Kong to attend press conferences and follow media mogul Jimmy Lai’s trial. Lai founded the now-defunct pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily. Lai, 76, is in court on allegations of national security and might spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Two times last year, Bielakowska and other Reporters Without Borders members were able to enter Hong Kong with success; the first time was for the beginning of Lai’s trial in December. Asia-Pacific bureau head Cédric Alviani, her traveling companion, had arrived in Hong Kong without any problems but departed later on Wednesday following Bielakowska’s expulsion.

At a press conference on Thursday, Vincent stated that the group believed Bielakowska had been singled out and deported since she had gone to the trial’s beginning in December whereas Alviani had not.

Vincent stated, “We think that this action was meant to prevent our colleagues from attending the trial, continuing to bear witness to that, and drawing attention to that on a global scale.”

Reporters Without Borders’ 2023 World Press Freedom Index ranks Hong Kong 140th out of 180 countries and territories, down from 70th place in 2018. The city has seen a sharp reduction in press freedom in recent years.

Two senior editors of Stand News, a pro-democracy publication that was forcibly shutdown in December 2021, are charged with sedition under a colonial-era legislation that carries a maximum two-year prison sentence in another well-known media-related case. On April 29, a verdict in their trial is anticipated.

Citing the recently passed Article 23 legislation, the U.S.-funded media organization Radio Free Asia said last month that it was closing its operations in the city.