The National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force arrested the independent journalist Tang Ho-wing, founder of the online media Boom News, on 30 September. (a) The official police circular of Hong Kong only discloses that the arrested person is a 37-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman, without naming them; The Associated Press, the South China Morning Post and several Hong Kong media outlets have identified the two as Dong Ho-hoon and dentists, former activist Lee Ying-chi. As of 1 October, both men were still being held for investigation, and the police stated that the action was continuing.
The case originated in a small gathering outside the Hong Kong Railway Prince station on the night of 31 August.Police briefing issued on 1 OctoberIt is alleged that on the same night, people carrying a bouquet and shouting slogans that were deemed inflammatory by the police were accused of disseminating false information about the events of 8/31, attacking the Government of the Region and razing the police force. Six persons were arrested by the police on 3 September and from 27 to 28 September, and six were subsequently released on bail; In addition to the arrests of Deng Ho-hoon and Li Ying-ji, on 30 September, eight persons have been arrested.
Hong Kong media reported that Deng Ho-hoon was taken away by NSA agents at around 7 a.m. on 30 September. The police obtained a court search warrant before the arrest, searched the residence of the arrested person and seized the items. (a) The police alleged that the case was suspected of violating section 24 of the Hong Kong Ordinance on the Protection of National Security, i.e., of having committed an act with the intent of inciting; The first conviction is punishable by imprisonment for up to seven years.
On a permanent basis, he has been a street journalist and a live broadcaster under the title “Boomhead/Boomhead”, and has been a journalist for the Middle School Journal and the “Gordon News Station” and founded the Boom News in 2020, which features Hong Kong's current affairs on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Threads.South China Morning.It was reported that Boom News had some 66,000 followers in Instagram. On 31 August, Dun Ho-Rong broadcast live on the scene outside the Prince's station.
The controversy has focused on the line between “interviewing” and “incitement”. According to the Hong Kong Journalists Association, this was the first publicly known case of a journalist arrested for incitement to a related charge after the entry into force of the National Security Ordinance 2024 and asked the police to indicate what specific acts were alleged to have been committed against him and whether the arrest was directly related to his press interview.Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ)The arrest was publicly criticized by RSF and the case was considered to be a pressure to make live interviews with Hong Kong journalists.
The police insist that their law enforcement targets are suspected of having an intention to incite, not the press identity itself. Official reports state that the death allegations related to the events of 8/31 have no factual basis and refer to attacks on the Government and the police. (b) During the counter-referral protest of 31 August 2019, riot police officers entered the Prince ' s station to enforce the law and arrested many others; The allegations of death in action have since been widely heard in society and have been consistently denied by the police.
The practical impact of this case is that article 24 of the Regulations on the Protection of National Security was first publicly used by an independent journalist who was in the process of reporting on the ground. Since the information currently made public by the police does not list the specific acts that Dung Hoon has been accused of, the follow-up of the cases will depend on how law enforcement can tailor the live broadcasts, interviews, comments or other acts to the “inciting intent”. For the Hong Kong press, the legal basis and judicial process that the police eventually disclose will define directly the range of legal risks that can be assumed by live reporting under the national security law.
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