- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP sprint to cut Martin's lead
- Alcaraz breezes into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Gaza cultural heritage brought to light in Geneva
- 'Bullet for democracy': Trump returns to site of rally shooting
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- South Korean cult-horror series 'Hellbound' returns at BIFF
- Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
- Honduras arrests environmentalist's alleged murderer
- Padres pitcher Musgrove needs elbow surgery
- Supreme Court lets stand rules to curb mercury, methane emissions
- Boston beat Denver in NBA exhibition season opener, but Jokic says omens are good
- Chagos diaspora angry at lack of input on islands' fate
- Biden says 'not confident' of peaceful US election
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- Lukaku stars as Napoli beat Como to hold Serie A top spot
- Ohtani set for MLB playoff debut as Dodgers face Padres
- Pogba's drug ban cut to 18 months from four years
- Devine leads New Zealand to big win over India in Women's T20 World Cup
- Bosnia floods kill 16 people
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Prosecutors seek dismissal of rape charges against French rugby players
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- Bolivia's Morales says claims he raped a minor are a 'lie'
- MLB Reds hire two-time champion Francona as manager
- Daniel Maldini receives first Italy call-up for Nations League
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- Ancelotti points finger at Madrid's 'lack of intensity'
- Haiti reeling after 70 killed in gang attack
- Five Czech kids in hospital over TikTok 'piercing challenge'
- What happens next in Iran-Israel conflict?
- Country star Garth Brooks denies rape accusations
- Stubbs hits maiden century as South Africa make 343-4 against Ireland
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Odegaard injury has forced Arsenal to be 'different', says Arteta
- Ratcliffe refuses to guarantee Ten Hag's Man Utd future
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Mauritius to hold legislative election on November 10
- Britain qualify for America's Cup final after 60-year wait
- IMF asks Sri Lanka to protect hard-won gains
- Morata returns to Spain Nations League squad after injury
- Irish regulator to probe Ryanair use of facial recognition
- Public allowed to see video evidence in France mass rape trial
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- Under-fire Ten Hag 'together' with Man Utd hierarchy
- Guardiola talks of Man City love affair as financial hearing rumbles on
- De Bruyne out of Belgium Nations League squad
- Japanese trainer Yahagi hopes Shin Emperor achieves 50-year-old Arc dream
- UK's Starmer hails 'landmark' carbon capture funding
- As EU targets Chinese cars, European rivals sputter
Hong Kong press club scraps rights awards over 'red line' fears
Hong Kong's foreign press club scrapped its annual human rights awards on Monday citing fears it could be prosecuted for crossing "new red lines" as Beijing stamps out dissent in the international business hub.
The decision has triggered a row within the Foreign Correspondents' Club Hong Kong (FCCHK) and sparked resignations from within its press freedom committee, four people with knowledge of the decision told AFP.
The FCCHK has hosted an annual Human Rights Press Awards for the last 26 years to recognise rights-related reporting from around Asia.
But this year's awards were canned at the last minute, just weeks before the winners were set to be announced.
"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," club president Keith Richburg said in a statement.
"This is the context in which we decided to suspend the Awards."
The decision came after five award categories were to be won by Stand News, a local outlet that shuttered late last year as its top editors were charged with sedition, according to the insiders.
The club's board were rattled by legal advice that they might face a probe under sedition or Hong Kong's new national security law if they went ahead with giving awards to Stand News.
- Resignations -
The following day eight members of the club's press freedom committee resigned in protest.
"The fact eight of us resigned speaks volumes about the fact we now think our function is useless," Shibani Mahtani, one of the committee members who quit -- and who also helped judge the awards -- told AFP.
"I just think we should be real and intellectually honest about what we're seeing in Hong Kong instead of pretending things are normal and that we're still able to be a genuine press club," she added.
Hong Kong was once a bastion of media freedom in Asia but that reputation has taken a battering as China remoulds the city in its own authoritarian image following huge democracy protests three years ago.
Hong Kong authorities often point to the continued existence of the FCCHK as proof that media freedoms remain respected, something that some of those who resigned feel increasingly alarmed by.
Tensions within the press freedom committee were already high this month after the FCCHK's board vetoed a statement expressing concern about the arrest of veteran journalist Allan Au -- a contributor to Stand News -- for sedition.
"By censoring statements and ending the awards the club is not only failing to uphold this mission but risks being used as a prop to keep up the myth that things in Hong Kong are carrying on as normal," Timothy McLaughlin, an independent journalist who also resigned from the committee, told AFP.
The FCCHK said it intends "to continue promoting press freedom in Hong Kong while recognising that recent developments might also require changes to our approach".
Nogueira--PC