A Japanese journalist was barred from coming into Hong Kong and not using a clear cause and was despatched again to his nation, a Japanese newspaper stated, elevating issues over the town’s shrinking press freedoms.

The Japan Times, a outstanding English-language newspaper, reported Friday {that a} freelance journalist was taken by officers to a room after arriving on the metropolis’s airport Thursday night. Yoshiaki Ogawa, recognized for his protection within the monetary hub, was later interviewed for round an hour, it stated.

Ogawa stated officers solely instructed him that he couldn’t be granted permission to remain within the metropolis and he was despatched again to Tokyo on Friday, the report stated.

It “truly made me feel how Hong Kong has changed … this would have been unthinkable before,” Ogawa was quoted as saying in the report.

In an email reply to the Associated Press, the Immigration Department in Hong Kong did not confirm the events and refused to comment on individual cases. It added the department acts in accordance with the laws and policies in handling each immigration case.

The entry denial has raised concerns over the erosion of Hong Kong’s press freedom, which was once a hallmark of the former British colony.

Hong Kong returned to China’s rule in 1997 and was promised the right to retain its Western-style freedoms for 50 years after the handover, but its press scene drastically shrank after the enactment of a Beijing-imposed national security law in 2020.

The law was introduced after the pro-democracy protests in 2019 and has prosecuted many leading Hong Kong activists, including Jimmy Lai, the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily, and other top management staffers at the newspaper.

The Japan Times said Ogawa has been closely following Hong Kong issues since 2014 and covered the 2019 movement but he did not plan to write anything about the city during his trip.

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders tweeted Friday it was appalled at Ogawa’s ordeal.

Hong Kong was ranked a hundred and fortieth out of 180 international locations and territories within the group’s newest World Press Freedom Index launched in May. The watchdog stated the town has skilled an unprecedented setback since 2020, when the safety regulation was launched.

In January, the Hong Kong Journalists Association reported that Japan-based photographer Michiko Kiseki was denied entry to the town in late 2022. The affiliation stated she had lined the 2019 protests and was grilled by authorities about her exhibition in Japan.