FCC Suspends Human Rights Press Awards

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) announced on Monday that it will suspend this year’s Human Rights Press Awards.

In a letter to the club’s members and uploaded on its website, president Keith Richburg said the decision was made after the board had a lengthy discussion on Saturday.

“Over the last two years, journalists in Hong Kong have been operating under new 'red lines' on what is and is not permissible, but there remain significant areas of uncertainty and we do not wish unintentionally to violate the law,” he said.

It would have been the 26th year the club had held the annual awards.

Richburg described the suspension as an unusual step to take just weeks before the winners were to be announced on May 3, acknowledging that it is likely deeply disappointing to the candidates, the judges and everyone else who took part.

He added the suspension of the awards was a very tough decision to reach, and that it “in no way reflects the FCC Board’s view of the content of any of the entries or the work of the independent judges.”

Richburg said the FCC intends to continue promoting press freedom in Hong Kong, but that “recent developments” - on which he did not elaborate - might require changes to the club’s approach.

The FCC’s press freedom committee members Shibani Mahtani, Timothy McLaughlin and Mary Hui said on Twitter that they had resigned from the committee following the decision. Five other committee members are also reported to have resigned.

“As a former winner and judge of the HRPA, I feel nothing but the deepest regret and do not stand by this decision,” said Mahtani, who is the Southeast Asia and Hong Kong bureau chief for the Washington Post.

“It is an award that meant something not only to Hong Kong but journalists across Asia who covered some of the most consequential developments in the region last year," Mahtani said.

“It is emblematic too of the self-censorship many institutions feel forced to subject themselves to in today's Hong Kong, whether with or without their merits.”

Mahtani said she had strongly recommended to the FCC president and its current board that it should seriously rethink the role of the press freedom committee, and the club as a whole. "I believe it is no longer able to serve its core mission: to defend and promote the press,” she said. (With additional reporting by Reuters)