Taipei, December 1, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Chinese authorities to immediately account for Hong Kong journalist Minnie Chan’s whereabouts, after news reports of her disappearance following her travel to the Chinese capital in October to cover the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, a security conference.
“Reports about the disappearance of Hong Kong journalist Minnie Chan after a work trip to Beijing are extremely concerning, and Chinese authorities must immediately disclose her location and guarantee her safety,” Iris Hsu, CPJ’s China representative, said on Friday. “Journalists must be able to do their work without fearing for their safety.”
Chan, an award-winning reporter for Hong Kong’s English-language South China Morning Post newspaper, became unreachable after the annual forum that ended on October 31. She has specialized in reporting on defense and diplomacy in China since 2005, according to the journalist’s profile on the newspaper’s website.
Chan’s friends worried she may be under investigation by Chinese authorities, according to Japanese media outlet Kyodo News, which first reported her disappearance. Her employer told Kyodo she was on “personal leave” but did not elaborate.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association said it was “deeply concerned” about Chan’s disappearance.
CPJ’s emailed requests to the South China Morning Post and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment did not immediately receive a response.
China ranked as the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists in CPJ’s 2022 prison census, which documented those imprisoned on December 1, 2022, with at least 43 journalists behind bars.