Hong Kong authorities detain and deport Reporters Without Borders campaigner
- NGO monitoring media freedoms says advocacy officer Aleksandra Bielakowska searched and questioned in detention lasting six hours before being deported
- She was coming to Hong Kong to meet journalists and attend hearings of ongoing national security trial of media tycoon Jimmy Lai
A representative of an international non-governmental organisation advocating for press freedom was denied entry to Hong Kong and deported on Wednesday as the organisation sought to meet journalists and monitor a high-profile national security trial in the city.
Reporters Without Borders said on Wednesday evening its Taipei-based advocacy officer Aleksandra Bielakowska was searched and questioned in a detention lasting six hours at the Hong Kong International Airport before she was deported.
“They detained me for six hours, questioned me, and searched me and my belongings several times,” she said. “After all this, I was deported under a nebulous pretext.”
Bielakowska confirmed to the Post that she was only told she would be deported for “immigration reasons” without further explanation. Bielakowska was issued a Refusal Notice and a Notice of Detention under section 32 of the Immigration Ordinance, the Post has learned.
She was travelling to the city alongside Cedric Alviani, director of the organisation’s Asia-Pacific bureau, to meet journalists in the city and attend hearings of the ongoing national security trial of opposition supporter and media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying.
Rebecca Vincent, director of campaigns for Reporters Without Borders, said: “We demand an immediate explanation from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and a guarantee that our representatives can return to the territory safely to monitor the remainder of Lai’s trial, which cannot take place in darkness.”
Vincent told the Post that while Alviani was able to enter Hong Kong, he left the city for safety reasons after Bielakowska’s deportation. Both Alviani and Bielakowska are now in Taipei.
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An Immigration Department spokesman refused to comment on individual cases, only saying it acted in accordance with laws and policies in handling each case.
According to documents seen by the Post, an immigration officer listed the purpose of detaining Bielakowska as “pending removal/deportation from Hong Kong”. The reason for deciding to detain the advocacy officer was that the “removal is going to be possible within a reasonable time”.
Bielakowska visited Hong Kong in December for the first day of the trial.
Lee Williamson, president of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club Hong Kong, told the Post that Alviani and Bielakowska were due to have an “routine, informal conversation” with its press freedom committee on Wednesday evening.
“The news is alarming,” Williamson said. “We are currently trying to better understand what happened and why Ms Bielakowska was denied entry to Hong Kong.”
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The Hong Kong Journalists Association said it was “very concerned” about the incident and “will keep a close eye on its development”.
“The association believes that it is the organisation’s [Reporters Without Borders] routine work to show interest in the state of press freedom and important judicial cases in Hong Kong,” it said.
“The Jimmy Lai case involves significant public interest and the case is a public hearing. We believe that the court welcomes all to listen and report on the case. We do not see any reason why the Immigration Department could prevent the reporter from coming to the court hearing.”
The association urged authorities to provide a reason for refusing the campaigner entry or else risk creating the impression the government was targeting international organisations hoping to come to Hong Kong to observe Lai’s case.
Reporters Without Borders publishes the annual World Press Freedom Index, where they tally abuses against journalists and the media in different countries and distribute questionnaires to reporters and researchers to gauge the sociopolitical context of each country to rank countries and regions in the world.
Last July, Japanese freelance journalist Yoshiaki Ogawa was denied entry to the city and sent back to Tokyo. The Immigration Department also declined to comment on individual cases at the time.
Additional reporting by Ambrose Li
