Journalists’ group challenges vehicle search policy

The Hong Kong Journalists Association has launched a court challenge against an “unjustifiable and unconstitutional” policy that blocked reporters from access to vehicle owners’ details.

It applied to the High Court for a judicial review of the policy almost three months after it was introduced, over which period no applications for access have been approved.

The association has asked for the information access roadblock, which came into force at the start of the year after a 2023 court ruling, to be removed.

The Court of Final Appeal last June ruled in favour of Bao Choy Yuk-ling, a freelance producer, after she challenged a conviction over the use of the government’s vehicle registry for a documentary that was critical of police actions during the 2019 social unrest.

A panel of judges said that journalism was a valid reason for access to the government records. The Transport Department introduced new information request rules in January as a result.

It requires journalists to submit written applications before they can get access to the personal information of vehicle owners for professional reasons.

Instant access to information is only allowed to people whose requests fall under seven categories, including insurance claims, legal proceedings involving vehicles, and their sale and purchase.

The transport commissioner, who is listed as the proposed respondent in the association’s application, is required to vet access requests from the media under the new rules and decide whether the “benefits to public interest outweighed the owner’s rights to privacy”.

The journalists’ group told the High Court that the process was “unduly protracted and slow”.

It highlighted that none of the eight applications from media outlets had been approved or ruled on by March 27 and five of them had been withdrawn.

The association said “excessive and unreasonable” delays were “unjustified and disproportionate” interference with free speech and freedom of publication enshrined in the Basic Law, as well as in the city’s bill of rights.

“This delay … has significant adverse consequences on fundamental rights by frustrating timely news reporting: ‘news dies on the vine’,” it said.

The commissioner’s refusal to supply car registration information could prevent “detailed, credible reporting on matters of public interest”. It added that the requirement to disclose the applicant’s personal information to the vehicle owner, with no consideration of the confidentiality inherent in investigative journalism, was also unreasonable and violated the right to press freedom.

The application also argued that the new arrangements were “formulated in narrow terms which prima facie excludes access to the registry for lawful journalistic purposes”.

“The Hong Kong Journalists Association is not opposed to a lawful ‘strengthening’ of the application process and regulatory framework for access to the register. However, the commissioner … cannot impose unreasonable, irrational and/or unjustified obstacles on the press in carrying out its role as a public watchdog,” it said.

“By doing so, the current policy is unlawful, being unreasonable, irrational, unjustifiable and unconstitutional.”

The Post has contacted the department for comment.

Choy, a former employee of RTHK, was fined HK$6,000 in April 2021 after she was convicted of making false statements to the Transport Department in connection with her use of its vehicle registration database.

She had chosen “other traffic and transport-related matters” as the purpose of her searches as journalism was not an option listed on the application form.

A magistrate found her guilty and rejected journalistic inquiry as a justification for the searches.

But the top court last June ruled that serious investigative journalism should be among the justifications for searches of the database.