A Hong Kong court has upheld the conviction and sentence of a journalist and former head of a press union for obstructing police while reporting.
Veteran journalist Ronson Chan began serving his five-day sentence on Friday after Deputy High Court Judge Lily Wong upheld a lower court’s conviction over an incident in September 2022, when Chan refused to show his ID card to a police officer while reporting on a homeowners’ meeting.
In her written judgment, which was not read out in court on Friday, Wong shot down Chan’s argument that the police officer’s demand was unlawful and found that the journalist had obstructed the police by wilfully delaying the presentation of his identification.
According to case details, Chan was covering the meeting at MacPherson Stadium in Mong Kok, where he was stopped by a plainclothes police officer who said he was acting “suspiciously” and asked to see his identification card.
He was arrested on suspicion of obstructing a police officer after allegedly failing to comply with demands to produce his ID card despite multiple warnings.
At trial, Chan said that he refused to present his identification due to privacy concerns, referring to an incident during the 2019 protests when a police officer showed his ID card in front of his camera, which was live-streamed to thousands of viewers.
The West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts found Chan guilty in September 2023, a year after he was arrested.
The trial judge, Leung Ka-kie, said Chan deliberately stopped the police officer from carrying out her duties and that his persistent questioning of officers when they asked for his identification was “reckless and unreasonable.”
Noting online calls to protest at the homeowners’ meeting, Judge Wong also concurred with the trial judge’s ruling that the police officers were justified in their actions to maintain public order.
“As the Magistrate ruled… given the social climate at the time, observing the rules and maintaining order in public places in Hong Kong was both important and commendable,” Judge Wong wrote.
Chan repeatedly questioned the officers and ignored warnings to calm down, and only offered an opaque cardholder, which constituted wilful obstruction, the judge added.
Chan’s barrister, Steven Kwan, told the court that he would seek a certificate from the appellate court to take the journalist’s appeal to the city’s apex court, but did not submit a bail application.
With the certificate, Chan would be able to seek permission for a final chance to appeal his conviction and sentence.
Chan, who was elected as chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) in June 2021, stepped down at the end of his term in June 2024, citing increasing pressure against him and the press union.
In a statement issued on Friday, the HKJA expressed “deep regret” over the court’s decision and raised concerns about the ruling’s impact on journalists’ work.
“Citing the exercise of constitutionally protected fundamental rights as grounds for a search is legally untenable, and today’s ruling failed to directly address this contradiction,” the HKJA said.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Friday that it “is outraged by the imprisonment of Ronson Chan.”
“The verdict sets a dangerous precedent, effectively giving the police a free hand and further eroding already dismantled press freedoms,” said Aleksandra Bielakowska, advocacy manager of RSF Asia Pacific.
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Replica Hunslett miniature steam engine named 'Alan Bloom' near Diss Norfolk June 2013.
HONG KONG, June 5 — Asian stocks sank yesterday after a disappointing forecast by chip giant Broadcom stoked concerns about the AI trade, while stronger-than-expected US data compounded speculation the Federal Reserve could hike interest rates.
Fresh Iranian attacks and a lack of progress in talks to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz added to the downbeat mood, though oil prices dived on news of a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.
Regional equity markets tracked a retreat on Wall Street, where tech firms — the drivers of a global surge to record highs in recent years — took a hit after Broadcom’s estimated chip revenue for the third quarter came in below expectations.
The outlook revived concerns that the eye-watering sums that companies have invested in the AI sector may have been overdone and that valuations are overblown.
Investment giant Ray Dalio warned on Wednesday that the boom — which has seen Nvidia’s capitalisation top US$5 trillion (RM20 trillion) — could turn into a bubble that will pop.
“All great technology changes produce bubbles,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
“Nobody can get it exactly right. You have to either spend a ton of money to capture your market share and don’t worry about whether it’s too much or not, or you don’t spend enough money and you lose your market share.”
After Wall Street’s retreat — also fuelled by profit-taking — stock markets in Asia fell, with tech-rich Tokyo and Seoul — which have led gains this year — among the hardest hit.
There were also losses in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, Mumbai, Wellington and Taipei.
Jakarta tumbled more than three per cent to its lowest level since 2021 as the Indonesian rupiah topped 18,000 to the dollar for the first time on worries about the country’s economy.
However, London, Frankfurt and Paris rose.
Meanwhile, US data showed US companies last month added the most jobs since the start of last year, despite rising energy prices. That came before the release of a closely watched non-farm payrolls report at the end of the week.
Speculation is rising that a strong reading today — which would compound the war-fuelled spike in inflation — could put more pressure on the Fed to hike rates.
“For traders... strong growth is no longer the uncomplicated gift it once was,” wrote Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.
“The market spent much of the past year trading as though rate cuts were perpetually just around the corner.
“Instead, the combination of resilient employment, firm activity data, and elevated energy prices is increasingly forcing investors to contemplate the opposite outcome.
“After months of head-scratching, traders finally appear to be accepting that a hawkish Federal Reserve, combined with an increasingly hawkish global central-bank backdrop, looks far more like a tightening cycle than a cutting cycle.”
The Middle East crisis continued to weigh, with Iran’s foreign minister saying “no tangible progress” had been made in negotiations with the US to end the war.
Meanwhile, Iran targeted the US’s main naval base in the region, located in Bahrain, and the Ali Al-Salem airbase in Kuwait, adding to worries about their fragile truce.
At least one person was killed in a separate strike on Kuwait’s civilian airport that caused significant damage and forced a suspension of flights for a few hours.
However, President Donald Trump struck an upbeat tone, telling reporters at the White House: “I hear the negotiation itself is going very well actually.
“It could happen... over the weekend.”
Still, Israel and Lebanon agreed Wednesday to implement a ceasefire “contingent on a complete cessation” of fire by Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah as well as evacuation of its operatives from southern Lebanon.
The announcement followed US-led talks in Washington and the two sides will meet for more talks later this month, “with a view toward reaching a comprehensive agreement”.
Both main crude contracts, which have jumped back towards US$100 this week, sank around one per cent. — Reuters
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