HKJA Statement Responding to Security Secretary

The FCC has been following with concern remarks by the Secretary for Security regarding the Hong Kong Journalists Association, the city’s largest union for working journalists. The secretary’s remarks questioned the details of HKJA’s membership rolls. The HKJA has responded to the secretary’s remarks with the following statement, which the FCC is republishing. The FCC expresses its support for all working journalists during an increasingly challenging time in Hong Kong’s media environment:

In response to media enquiries about our membership and the Secretary for Security’s comments on Wednesday, the HKJA would like to make the following comments:

As of 15 September 2021 at 2pm, HKJA has 486 current members. They include 331 full members, 22 associate members, 34 public relations members, 56 student members, and 43 retired or permanent members. The numbers of our membership fluctuate as the Association processes new applications and renewals daily.

In response to media enquiries on the number of our members employed by specific media outlets, we would like to note that our members come from a large number of media organisations. Each individual membership lasts one year and members are required to renew their membership by the end of the year. If the media outlet where a member works has closed down, or if the member has left the media industry, they will not be able to renew their membership. The details on membership eligibility are available on our website’s membership application section, and are stated in our charter.

Meanwhile, Secretary for Security Chris Tang today said HKJA may “assuage the public’s doubts” by publishing our membership list “without disclosing personal information.” We are baffled by the Secretary’s apparently illogical suggestion. HKJA hopes the Secretary could understand that our members’ employment is part of their personal information. We are therefore unable to decipher how we could possibly make public the media outlets where our members are employed, without also disclosing their personal data at the same time.

We would like to reiterate that under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, HKJA may not disclose members’ personal data without their expressed consent. Any suggestion to make our membership and their employers public in order to “assuage doubts” would appear to incite a breach of the Ordinance.

Hong Kong Journalists Association
15 September 2021

就傳媒查詢有關本會會員事務，及保安局局長的言論，本會有回覆如下：

截至2021年9月15日下午2時，本會有效會員共有486人，其中包括正式會員331人、附屬會員22人、公關會員34人，學生會員56人，另有退休會員及永久會員共43人。而本會每日均會處理續會、入會申請的事務，會員人數會不時變更，敬希注意。

就有傳媒查詢，個別傳媒機構在本會內的會員人數，本會會員來自多間傳媒機構，會籍有效期為一年，會員需要每年續會。如會員所任職的傳媒機構已經停業、或會員已經離開傳媒行業，則不能續會。有關本會的會員資格，可參閱本會網頁的會員申請須知及會章。

另外，就保安局局長鄧炳強今日表示，本會可在「撇除個人資料」下公布會員名單，以「釋除疑慮」。本會認為鄧炳強的建議邏輯混亂，令人百思不得其解。本會希望局長明白，會員所任職的傳媒機構，亦為其「個人資料」一部分，本會實在無法推敲出，如何在「撇除個人資料」下，公布會員「來自乜嘢媒體」。

本會亦在此重申，根據《個人資料（私隱）條例》規定，未經當事人同意，本會不能披露會員個人資料。若要求本會應公開會員名單或其所屬機構「以釋公眾疑慮」，實在有鼓吹本會違反《私隱條例》之嫌。

香港記者協會
2021年9月15日