Updates

December 28, 2015 (Reuters) — China has passed a controversial new anti-terrorism law that requires technology firms to help decrypt information, but not install security “backdoors” as initially planned, and allows the military to venture overseas on counter-terror operations. Chinese officials say their country faces a growing threat from militants and separatists, especially in its unruly Western region of...

Dec. 26, 2015 (Washington Post) — The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a written statement that Ursula Gauthier, the Beijing correspondent for French news magazine L’Obs, would not be issued press credentials for 2016, effectively expelling her. Gauthier drew Beijing’s ire by writing an essay that questioned the Chinese government’s rhetoric on terrorism. In the statement, Lu Kang, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry,...

December 1, 2015 (Hong Kong Free Press) — The High Court has made further rulings on the injunction in force to prevent more leaks of the discussions at a crucial University of Hong Kong (HKU) Council meeting. The court allowed the injunction to continue until the trial, and rejected the applications by Apple Daily and Undergrad editor-in-chief Marcus Lau Yee-ching to join the court proceedings as interested parties. Only the...

November 26, 2015 (BBC) — Chinese journalist Gao Yu jailed for leaking state secrets has been allowed to serve her sentence outside prison on medical grounds, Chinese. Yu, 71, was found guilty last April and challenged her conviction at a closed hearing in Beijing on Thursday. The guilty verdict was upheld, but the jail term was cut from seven years to five and the medical grounds permitted. The well-known investigative...

November 20, 2015 (Hong Kong Free Press) — Asia Television Limited (ATV) and its former executive director James Shing Pan-yu have been ordered to pay Ricky Wong Wai-kay HK$1.3 million in damages by the High Court, following a defamation lawsuit. In 2012, as Ricky Wong was applying for a free-to-air licence for Hong Kong Television Network Limited (HKTV), Shing accused Wong of stealing confidential documents from ATV during...

Nov. 18, 2015 (South China Morning Post) — Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao was cleared of defaming the vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Football Association in an editorial after the Court of Appeal ruled the paper made its comments in the public interest. The Court of Appeal overturned a jury’s verdict that found that Ming Pao had defamed Pui Kwan-kay by alleging that he was incapable of managing the association....