Amnesty should have tried to get facts right on ‘missing’ Uygur student
- False report on a Uygur student having gone missing in Hong Kong shows politics and ideology cannot be allowed to get in the way of truth
Fact has always been paramount. But in the age of the internet and social media it has never been more important in informing public discourse and countering the harm that can be done by misinformation.
So facts are worth establishing and checking. In that respect Amnesty International, a respected human rights organisation, has neither done enough for its own reputation nor done justice to Hong Kong in the way it handled a false report raising concerns about an individual’s human rights.
Amnesty has admitted that a Uygur student it reported as “missing in Hong Kong” after arriving at the airport from South Korea – a claim rejected as groundless at the time by the government – did not even travel to the city.
The report claimed involvement in his disappearance by the Hong Kong and mainland authorities.
Without an apology for its mistake or expression of regret, Amnesty has affirmed its commitment to fight for human rights: “We will continue to strive to offer support to people who reach out to us when they believe they or their loved ones are at risk of human rights violations.”
Not surprisingly the Hong Kong government has demanded an apology. Hopefully, this will prompt Amnesty to reflect on the importance of its credibility in advocating for human rights.
Did ‘missing’ Uygur case hurt image of Amnesty International and Hong Kong?
Surely common sense demanded that an unsubstantiated report of the disappearance of an individual be treated with more caution.
That said, Amnesty’s closure of offices in the city, citing the Beijing-imposed national security law, may have led to the loss of contacts and a lack of rigour in compiling missing person reports.
That makes careful fact-checking even more important, and an inquiry with the Hong Kong government or immigration authorities could have established that the young man had neither entered nor been refused entry to the city.
It is a stretch to imagine the authorities would have secretly detained such an inbound visitor without any apparent reason. Hong Kong, after all, remains a society ruled by law.
This incident is a reminder that this is no time to be jumping to immediate conclusions, amid geopolitical tension and uncertainty. Fact-checking is critical to credible appeals for people’s rights. Politics and ideology cannot be allowed to get in the way of facts.
