Editor’s note: This alert has been updated to include a response from Hong Kong’s Immigration Department.
New York, August 25, 2025—Hong Kong authorities should ensure the right of journalists to work freely and renew the work visa of Bloomberg reporter Rebecca Choong Wilkins, who is among at least eight journalists whose work visas and entry into the city have been denied since its 2020 National Security Law, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.
Choong Wilkins, a British national who reports on government and economy in Asia, confirmed in an X post on August 23 she will be leaving the city after six years, after The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong revealed a day earlier that her visa renewal had been denied.
“The weaponization of media visas is a common tactic used by governments who seek to suppress the truth,” said CPJ Asia-Pacific Regional Director Beh Lih Yi. “Hong Kong authorities should explain any denial of work visas or entry and establish a transparent mechanism in their decision-making processes. Arbitrarily denying a journalist’s right to work is against press freedoms that are protected under Hong Kong’s Basic Law.”
A Bloomberg News spokesperson told CPJ the outlet is working through the appropriate avenues to resolve the matter and declined to elaborate on the journalist’s visa status.
Choong Wilkins joins fellow Bloomberg reporter Haze Fan, a Chinese national; AP photographer Louise Delmotte; freelance Japanese journalist Yoshiaki Ogawa; and photographer Michiko Kiseki on a growing list of press members who have been denied work visas or entry into the city since Beijing’s imposition of the national security law in mid-2020. Several media outlets were closed and journalists have been arrested.
When contacted about Choong Wilkins, Hong Kong’s Immigration Department said it did not comment on individual cases.