Dozens of Hong Kong journalists and their families have been harassed and intimidated in the past three months, according to the chair of a local press club.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association or HKJA said Friday it had tracked "systematic" and "organized" attacks on journalists from June to August this year.
At least 15 journalists and their family members, employers and neighbors were harassed both online and offline, the press club said.
Selina Cheng, the chair of the HKJA, said in a press conference Friday that it is the biggest case of intimidation that the association has ever seen.
"I don’t believe this is right, and that’s why we are making a loud call today to say we do not accept such behavior," she said.
"This type of intimidation and harassment, which includes sharing false and defamatory content and death threats, damages press freedom," she added.
Journalists from multiple Hong Kong media outlets have been affected, with anonymous threats and harassment made via social media email or in the mail, the HKJA said in a statement.
Some of those targeted received threats to their personal safety and were warned to give up their employment or position within associations, the HKJA added.
"HKJA has gathered detailed information on a number of affected journalists and organisations," the statement read. Those affected include two journalism education institutions and 13 media outlets, including the executive committee of the HKJA, Hong Kong Free Press, InMediaHK, and HK Feature.
Many of the letters and emails warned that association with the named organizations or people could be a violation of Hong Kong’s national security laws.
The emails and letters were sent anonymously, with emails sent from Microsoft Outlook accounts.
On social media, posts showed photos of journalists and members of the HKJA executive committee pictured alongside images of knives, blood, shooting targets and "memorial" signs.
The Hong Kong Free Press condemned the attacks. In a statement shared on social media, it said that the landlord of the news website’s director, Tom Grundy, had received threatening letters, saying "unimaginable consequences" would occur unless Grundy was evicted from his property.
Grundy reported the threats to police, the news website said.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders or RSF called on the international community to take action.
"We strongly condemn this harassment campaign led against the independent media outlets that managed to survive the previous waves of government repression," said Cedric Alviani, RSF’s Asia-Pacific bureau director. "We urge the international community to intensify its pressure on the Chinese regime so press freedom is fully restored in the territory."
VOA requested comment late Friday from the Hong Kong Police Force but did not immediately receive a response.
Hong Kong’s undersecretary for security, Michael Cheuk, told media "no one should be intimidated, insulted, or so-called harassed."
Cheuk urged anyone who felt under pressure to report it to law agencies, Reuters reported.
The HKJA said that it has contacted Meta, which owns Facebook, and Wikimedia Foundation, the two main platforms used in the harassment campaign.
Cheng told VOA she believes a person or group of people are responsible.
"Bots means they are machine-controlled. I don’t think that’s the case," she added.
Details of the intimidation campaign come as critics warn that press freedom is being eroded in Hong Kong.
Since Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 — which carries life imprisonment for those found guilty of what are deemed as sedition, subversion, foreign interference or terrorism — news outlets have shuttered and there is greater self-censorship on sensitive issues, say media experts.
Activists, political figures, lawmakers and reporters are cautious about speaking on the record to the media, with most declining to be interviewed for fear of reprisal.
Media unions like the Hong Kong Journalist Association have also come under pressure, after being criticized by authorities and Chinese state media for alleged links to activist organizations.
The governments of Hong Kong and China have said that the security law has brought stability back to the former British colony.
But since 2020, dozens of people have been arrested under the legislation. At least 28 of those arrested were journalists or press freedom defenders.
In August, two journalists from the now-defunct Stand News website were found guilty of sedition in a landmark case. And the pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai is in prison and on trial under the national security law for charges he denies.
