Earlier this week, a Japanese journalist named Yoshiaki Ogawa was denied entry into Hong Kong and sent back to Tokyo without any explanation. Ogawa, a renowned freelance journalist known for his coverage of Hong Kong, arrived in the city by plane on Thursday evening but was taken to a separate room by officials after showing his passport.
After a period of waiting, Ogawa was interviewed by the officers for almost an hour. He was then asked to sign a document acknowledging that he was not allowed to enter the city and was subsequently deported back to Japan. When Ogawa asked the officials why he was being sent back, they simply informed him that he couldn’t be granted permission to stay.
Expressing his surprise at the incident, Ogawa highlighted how Hong Kong had changed due to increased Chinese influence. He stated that he had no intention of engaging in any suspicious activities during his visit and that the incident made him realize the extent of the changes in Hong Kong, which would have been unthinkable in the past.
Although Ogawa had no plans to write anything during his time in Hong Kong, the incident drew attention on social media and in media organizations, bringing further attention to the situation in the city. Sam Yip, spokesperson for the Japan-Hong Kong Democracy Alliance, remarked that Ogawa’s case was indicative of the worsening situation in Hong Kong, considering that he was a freelance journalist without any affiliation to a major news organization.
Since the implementation of Beijing’s national security law in 2020, Hong Kong has become an authoritarian environment where press freedom and democratic rights are virtually non-existent. In a related incident, Chinese financial journalist Wu Xiaobo, who has a significant following on social media, was recently banned from various platforms for expressing critical views of the Xi Jinping government.
Media reports indicate that Wu’s content on Weibo, a popular social media platform, has been scrubbed since April 2022. Content moderators claimed to have blocked three verified users for spreading negative information about the securities market and exaggerating the unemployment rate. These incidents illustrate the authoritarian stamp on Hong Kong and the restrictions on freedom of expression within China.
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