The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the decision by Hong Kong’s top court to uphold the conviction of publisher Jimmy Lai and six pro-democracy campaigners on charges of participating in an unauthorized assembly in 2019. CPJ is also dismayed by the participation of David Neuberger, a former head of Britain’s Supreme Court who also chairs an advisory panel to the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC), as part of a panel of five Court of Final Appeal judges that delivered the ruling.
“It is impossible to reconcile Lord Neuberger’s judicial authority as part of a system that is politicized and repressive with his role overseeing a panel that advises governments to defend and promote media freedom. The Media Freedom Coalition should immediately review his role as chair of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom,” said CPJ Advocacy and Communications Director Gypsy Guillen Kaiser.
Lai, the 76-year-old founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, has been behind bars since 2020. On August 12, Hong Kong’s top court rejected his appeal against a conviction for taking part in unauthorized anti-government protests. Lai, whose trial on national security charges was adjourned again last month to late November, faces possible life imprisonment if convicted. He was honored by CPJ and the organization continues to advocate for his immediate, unconditional release.
The MFC is a group of 50 countries that pledge to promote press freedom at home and abroad. CPJ is a longstanding member of the MFC’s consultative network of nongovernmental organizations.
CPJ believes the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, which serves as the secretariat for the MFC’s panel of media freedom experts, should also review Neuberger’s role.
(Update: Neuberger announced in a statement dated August 14 that he was stepping down from his role as chair of the MFC’s panel of legal experts, “because it is undesirable that focus on my position as a non-permanent Judge in Hong Kong should take away, or distract, from the critical and impactful work of the High Level Panel.”)