Frozen Out
Earlier this month, Lingua Sinica reported on the arrest of Tang Ho-wing (鄧浩榮), founder of the independent Hong Kong outlet Boom News (爆炸頭), which since 2020 has posted on-the-ground reporting and interviews to Facebook, Instagram, Threads and YouTube. Tang, who was released on bail on October 2, said in an October 7 social media post that all of his bank accounts had been frozen, even though authorities had issued no formal order, according to a report by the overseas Hong Kong outlet Points Media (棱角媒體).
Tang reportedly said he was now living on cash and was unable even to find food delivery work without a working bank account, lamenting that he would have to “resort to begging.”
Tang was detained on September 30 on suspicion of sedition under Hong Kong’s 2024 Safeguarding National Security Ordinance. His detainment was reportedly in connection to a video he posted about an August 31 gathering outside the city’s Prince Edward station. The gathering commemorated the seventh anniversary of a violent 2019 police raid at the station, when officers stormed a train during that year’s mass protests and struck passengers, including ordinary commuters and protesters.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association (香港記者協會) expressed concern about Tang’s detention. “If journalists are arrested simply for reporting from the scene, or if the content of their reports differs from official narratives,” the association wrote on social media, “all frontline journalists will face similar risks when reporting in the future.”
