After his release on bail, his bank account was frozen: how did the KUA case extend to a journalist's job?

An independent journalist who was able to live on the streets and filmed live, found himself on bail without even using his bank account. Hong Kong's “Boom News” founder Tang Ho-wing was arrested by the National Security Police on 30 September and released on bail on 2 October; On 7 October, all his bank accounts under social platforms were frozen. On 14 October, Lingua Sinica, an English-language media, followed up on the incident. This is more specific than a single allegation: even if a person has left the police station, he or she may not return to normal work and life.

This was the result of a commemoration outside the railway station in Port-au-Prince on 31 August. Some of the citizens were holding flowers to commemorate the Prince's stand-in police clash during the 2019 anti-regime campaign. The police refer to activities involving incitement and dissemination of false information. (b) The independent media coverage of Deng Hoon ' s business, where he was arrested on 30 September with a social activist, Lee Yingzhi; The police did not provide a full statement in the initial statement as to which journalistial acts constituted a crime. Both the Hong Kong Journalists Association and the Committee for the Protection of Journalists expressed concern about the case.

Bail is not the end of the restoration of liberty

According to information from the Committee for the Protection of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, Deng Hoon was released on bail on 2 October. He then disclosed through social platforms that the account was not usable. On 14 October Lingua Sinica reported that the bank had not given him prior notice and had not shown him an official freezing order; He had to rely on cash and even had difficulty finding temporary employment through the delivery platform. These are the cases that Deng himself has publicly expressed and is relayed in the media, and it cannot be asserted that the order to freeze must be issued by the police, but the real consequences of the restrictions on bank accounts are clear.

After the day-to-dayization of financial services, accounts are not used solely for savings. Wages, rental of housing, contributions and platform bills are all account-dependent. A small, independent media operator may lose both equipment and interview time and, suddenly, be unable to collect money. Even if he did not enter the sentencing phase of the Tribunal, his professional activities already bear a heavy cost.

“Incitement” extended borders, with reporting of the site itself becoming a risk

The case is governed by the sedition provisions of the Hong Kong National Security Ordinance 2024, rather than being simply equivalent to the National Security Act enacted in Beijing in

1. With these two sets of systems in place, the line between political expression, public remembrance and journalism is increasingly dependent on the interpretation of the State security authorities. The police have the power to investigate specific offences, but the targeting of the camera to the controversial historical memory should not in itself constitute a criminal presumption.

Beijing has consistently claimed that freedom of the press is preserved in Hong Kong. This sentence is tested not by counting the number of websites that can be opened, but by seeing whether a journalist can continue to have a normal professional life after a political commemoration. (a) Deng Hoon was released on bail, but still faced a situation in which bank accounts were not used properly; This fact of life is more a description of the cost of freedom of the press in Hong Kong than any macro-level propaganda.