HONG KONG: Two mobile phones owned by jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai can be searched on nationwide security grounds and so are not protected simply by journalistic privilege, the senior judge ruled Tuesday (Aug 30) in Hong Kong.
Lai, proprietor of the now-shuttered Apple Daily tabloid, will soon go on test for “collusion along with foreign forces”, a good offence that carries up to life in prison under the capturing national security legislation Beijing imposed on Hong Kong two years back.
Two smartphones were seized when hundreds of police officers arrested Lai and raided the newsroom of Apple Daily, which eventually collapsed after its assets were frozen under the security law.
Lai’s legal team claimed the content of the mobile phones was covered by journalistic privilege, which is recognised by case law in Hong Kong, along with legal privilege that protects conversations in between lawyers and their clients.
Last month, police requested a warrant to search the phones under the national security legislation.
Wilson Chan, one of the High Court judges handpicked from the government to try protection cases, on Tuesday ruled that police could search Lai’s phones, including journalistic materials. He omitted content covered by lawful privilege.
“Press freedom simply does not equate (to) any blanket prohibition contrary to the seizure, production or disclosure of journalistic materials”, Chan wrote in his judgement.
Chan ruled the particular warrant covers all kinds of materials so long as these people contain or probably contain evidence of the national security offence, including journalistic materials.