Hong Kong has refused to renew the visa of an Australian correspondent from the Economist, the newspaper’s chief editor said, amid a crackdown on free speech and dissent in the city. Sue-lin Wong is one of several foreign journalists working in Hong Kong to be forced out in recent years.
Press freedoms in the once-outspoken city have been reined in as China remoulds Hong Kong, following huge democracy protests in 2019 and Beijing’s imposition of a strict national security law last year. Wong, who is not currently in Hong Kong, was refused permission to return to work in the city, the paper’s editor, Zanny Minton Beddoes, said in a statement.
“We regret their decision, which was given without explanation,” she said. “We urge the government of Hong Kong to maintain access for the foreign press, which is vital to the territory’s standing as an international city,” she added.
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