HKJA Challenges Police's 'obstruction, Brutality'

The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) has filed a judicial review against the Commissioner of Police and the Secretary for Justice, accusing officers of using "obstructive tactics" and "unnecessary and excessive force" against the media.

A summary of the filing was posted online by human rights firm Vidler and Co. Solicitors.

The post said the legal challenge makes reference to a wide range of operational failings regarding the police's interactions with the press, which have been brought to the attention of the Commissioner of the Police by the HKJA, but resulted in no remedial action.

It said there has been a "pattern of obstructive tactics against the media", citing occasions where officers hid their identities, threatened reporters with arrest, used high-intensity and strobe lighting to interfere with cameras, blocked journalists, and subjected the press to verbal abuse and insulting language.

The post added that police have used unnecessary and excessive force against journalists – including beating them with truncheons and shields, kicking, and pepper spraying them. It said media workers have also been targeted with tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets and bean bag rounds.

However, the examples cited don't include the most recent incidents, such as the shooting of an Indonesian journalist who is said to have been permanently blinded in her right eye.

The HKJA said the judicial review seeks to establish that the police have acted unlawfully in failing to facilitate the work of the media, and in some cases actively hindered their work.

It also wants to hold the Commissioner of Police accountable for failing, or refusing, to investigate and address these "operational deficiencies".

The association added that the government has a duty to establish a mechanism to effectively and independently investigate complaints against officers, adding that the Complaints Against Police Office and the Independent Police Complaints Council are inadequate to discharge that obligation.