In a rare victory for journalism amid a crackdown on the news media in Hong Kong, the city’s top court on Monday overturned the conviction of a prominent reporter who had produced a documentary that was critical of the police.
Choy Yuk-ling, who also goes by the name Bao Choy, is best known in Hong Kong for producing investigative documentaries examining police conduct in 2019 when the city was roiled by months of anti-government protests.
Among the documentaries she produced was a prize-winning episode of Hong Kong Connection, a news programme by the city’s public broadcaster RTHK. The episode examined who was behind a mob attack on a group of protesters and commuters in a train station on July 21, 2019, that left 45 people injured.
Choy had used a public database to look up the license plates of vehicles caught on video transporting the suspected attackers and traced them to community leaders in Hong Kong’s outlying villages. She was arrested in 2020 and found guilty the next year. A court ordered her to pay a fine of Hong Kong $6,000.
On Monday, 5 judges from the Court of Final Appeal voted to overturn the conviction. They argued that Choy may not have knowingly made a false statement, given that many news media companies had filed similar applications for information.
New York Times News Service
