Sourced from South China Morning Post
Yesterday, the Hong Kong police has controversially decided to restrict access to press briefings and restricted areas to government recognized journalism outlets and internationally recognized outlets which sparked outrage from local media groups.
Under the new guidelines in the Police General Orders, starting from Wednesday 23rd September 2020, the police will no longer recognize local media or journalism groups unless they are registered with the Information Services Department. The status of internationally recognised media outlets will remain unchanged.
The senior officer that formulated the new policy claimed that journalism groups have been pressing for the police to give a clear definition of the press. “The new measures provide an objective and transparent definition, which helps facilitate real members of the press to do their job,”.
“There has been no proven case that the HKJA or the photographers association’s membership cards caused any problem. The force just used the public impression that there are ‘fake reporters’ as the basis to make this change.”
HKJA (Hong Kong Journalism Association) chairman Chris Yeung Kin-hing
However, leading journalist groups said the definition of “the press” has been changed without their consultation or input despite the media being a major stake holder in possible change of guidelines.
The police and supporters of the new guidelines cites the danger of fake reporters in an Era of misinformation. Such as a protest in a mall with only 5 protestors but over 150 reporters. Officers had seized at least 13 fake press cards and a bogus press vest carrying a logo of a television station.
“If someone claims to be a reporter but I do not know about the background, or if they are doing genuine reporting work, won’t they pose a danger to our officers or obstruct our work?”
Senior officer involved in formulating the new policy.
HKJA (Hong Kong Journalism Association) chairman Chris Yeung Kin-hing said journalists could only get HKJA membership if they could prove that at least half of their income came from journalism. The association also issued membership cards to trainees, or students training in journalism or serving a form of apprenticeship, he added, proving that it is difficult to obtain journalism identification in the first place.
“It’s damaging to our working relationship with the police as they changed it without consulting us,” he said. “There has been no proven case that the HKJA or the photographers association’s membership cards caused any problem. The force just used the public impression that there are ‘fake reporters’ as the basis to make this change.” says Yeung.
The relationship between journalists and police has already been strained due to indiscriminatory police brutality according to the HKJA and the Hong Kong Photographers Association.
The new guidelines still allows unrecognized outlets to cover news events and protests in public areas, officers will not be obliged to help them and they can be charged for participating in illegal assembly and breaking social distancing rules which effectively achieves the result of the suppression of unrecognized outlets.
The Hong Kong News Executives’ Association expressed “strong concerns” stressing that guidelines “should primarily facilitate reporters’ work and ensure the industry was free from unreasonable and unnecessary restrictions.”
In a joint statement, the HKJA and seven other journalist organisations said the new police guidelines infringes the 27th Article of the Basic Law, which guaranteed press freedom.
However, not all hope is lost, Academic Eric Cheung Tat-ming from the University of Hong Kong’s law faculty said that even though the Police General Orders are internal guidelines, members of the public can still mount a legal challenge to amend the document.
“The functions of the Police General Orders were stated in the Police Force Ordinance … It guided the police use of public power, so it can be subject to judicial review,”
Eric Cheung Tat-ming
The Dark Hound 
That seems pretty ridiculous to me, tho with the way the entire world is these days not at all surprising. Even in America the media is under attack these days.
Definitely. Because the media reports the truth.