A Hong Kong-based journalist with the BBC says he has filed a police report after becoming aware that men—possibly agents tasked with enforcing the city’s national security law—appear to be following him.
Danny Vincent said in a BBC podcast on Saturday that the stalking seemed to start in August, the same week that Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai was arrested.
“I noticed suspicious-looking men waiting outside my home. I saw the same cars at several locations that I visited, including a hotel which I moved into in an attempt to change my routine,” the British correspondent said.
Since the passing of the national security law, activists and opposition lawmakers have reported being stalked by unknown individuals.
Political leader Joshua Wong has posted on his social media accounts, and told reporters, that he regularly sees cars or people following and taking pictures of him. In late August, the 23-year-old said a seven-seater car tailed him to the Peak, where another car appeared to be waiting for him when he arrived.
Wong, who has been active in politics since he was 15, said he is used to suspicious individuals shadowing him, but that he following has “intensified” since the passing of the national security law three months ago.
Even less high profile activists, like Jimmy Sham and Figo Chan, have reported being surveilled. Both Sham and Chan are part of the Civil Human Rights Front, the group that organized numerous marches during the protests last year.
Vincent, who worked in mainland China before being posted to Hong Kong as a correspondent, said he had been followed by security agents while reporting north of the border.
“Yes, I’ve been made to sign false confessions late at night, but I felt confident that I was only being intimidated. I felt I knew the rules of the game,” he said. “But here, the rules are changing.”
Political analysts and experts say that the security legislation, which came into effect the night before the July 1 1anniversary of the city’s handover to mainland China, has produced a chilling effect across a cross section of Hong Kong society.
In September, authorities rewrote the official definition of “media representatives,” stating that only government-registered and “internationally recognized” would enjoy the privileges of reporting in a city once known for a relatively high degree of press freedom.
In recent months, sources that Coconuts have approached—even, in one instance, for a story unrelated to politics—have expressed misgivings about being quoted.
“Political surveillance with chilling effect, sadly, has become the new reality in HK,” Wong tweeted in June.
