A Hong Kong reporter who has been unreachable since travelling to China a couple of month in the past is the second journalist at her newspaper to have a prolonged unexplained absence from work in as a few years, in line with a number of folks aware of the state of affairs.
Minnie Chan, a reporter with the South China Morning Publish (SCMP), has been out of contact with mates since travelling to Beijing in late October to attend the Xiangshan Discussion board, Japan’s Kyodo Information reported on Thursday, elevating fears she might have been detained by Chinese language authorities.
The Hong Kong-based SCMP, which is owned by Chinese language tech large Alibaba, stated on Friday that Chan is on private go away in Beijing and that it had been knowledgeable by her household that she “needs time to handle a private matter”.
“Her family has told us she is safe but has requested that we respect her privacy,” a spokesperson for the newspaper stated. “We are in contact with Minnie’s family and we have no further information to disclose.”
The SCMP’s assertion, nevertheless, has not assuaged issues about Chan’s welfare, with associates and media freedom teams calling for assurances of her security.
Chan’s absence comes after one other SCMP reporter dropped out of contact in China for various months in 2022, elevating issues amongst colleagues that they could have been detained, 4 folks aware of discussions within the newsroom instructed Al Jazeera.
The reporter, whose work was not revealed at SCMP for a interval of 9 months, later returned to work on the newspaper, however in a special part masking much less politically delicate information. The reporter has not written for SCMP for various months and it’s unclear if she remains to be employed on the newspaper.
Al Jazeera has chosen to not title the reporter, who didn’t reply to requests for remark, out of respect for his or her privateness.
The SCMP declined to touch upon “speculative reporting” in regards to the second reporter, citing privateness concerns.
“The safety of our journalists in the course of their professional work is of the utmost importance to us,” a spokesperson stated.
Media freedom organisations, together with the Committee to Shield Journalists (CPJ), proceed to be involved about Chan’s welfare.
“Reports about the disappearance of Hong Kong journalist Minnie Chan after a work trip to Beijing are extremely concerning, and Chinese authorities must immediately disclose her location and guarantee her safety,” Iris Hsu, the CPJ’s China consultant, stated in an announcement on Friday.
“Journalists must be able to do their work without fearing for their safety.”
Former South China Morning Publish editor-in-chief Wang Xiangwei additionally stated on social media that he was “pray[ing] for Minnie Chan, my friend and my former colleague at SCMP”, with out elaborating additional.
On Monday, Article 19, a freedom of expression advocacy group, criticised the SCMP for threatening authorized motion towards Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), an internet information outlet, after its editor-in-chief contacted the newspaper for touch upon Chan’s case.
“That HKFP has been singled out with the threat of legal action has all the hallmarks of arbitrary litigation to silence and intimidate a free press performing its function as a public watchdog,” stated Michael Caster, Article 19’s Asia digital programme supervisor.
“Rather than threatening legal action, South China Morning Post should be grateful for the outpouring of support and solidarity for its journalist.”
Article 19’s assertion got here after the SCMP instructed HKFP’s editor-in-chief in an e-mail that it was “concerned you may be rushing to conclusions not supported by facts” and that it reserved the best to take authorized motion towards “any misreporting of this matter concerning the Post.”
Hong Kong’s media setting, as soon as among the many most vibrant in Asia, has deteriorated dramatically because the introduction of a Beijing-decreed nationwide safety regulation in 2020.
The SCMP, which has turn into recognized for its pro-Beijing editorial line lately, was spared from police raids that shuttered a lot of the metropolis’s impartial and pro-democracy media.
China is among the many world’s worst jailers of journalists, with a minimum of 43 reporters in custody in 2022, in line with the CPJ.
Final month, Cheng Lei, an Australian journalist who labored with Chinese language state-run CGTN, was launched after spending three years in custody on nationwide safety expenses.
Chinese language authorities have a variety of powers at their disposal to detain journalists for lengthy durations with out cost.
Chinese language police can maintain suspects for as much as 37 days earlier than making an official arrest and as much as 13.5 months earlier than urgent formal expenses, in line with a Canadian journey advisory.
Underneath one other type of detention generally known as “residential surveillance at a designated location”, suspects might be held for as much as six months with out being charged or gaining access to a lawyer.
