Officers lack power to order identity proof under police ordinance, court hears as Ronson Chan seeks top court appeal

The police ordinance does not empower officers to demand identity proof, a lawyer for Ronson Chan has argued as the former head of Hong Kong’s largest press union applied to challenge his conviction for obstructing police at the Court of Final Appeal.

Ronson Chan, who helmed the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) from 2021 to 2024, applied to the High Court on Wednesday for permission to take his challenge to the top court.

He is seeking a Certificate to Court of Final Appeal, the first step in the convoluted top court appeal procedures in the city’s legal system.

The veteran reporter was convicted in September 2023 of obstructing a police officer the previous year and sentenced to five days in jail.

The case relates to an incident in September 2022, when the then-41-year-old was reporting on a homeowners’ committee meeting at MacPherson Stadium in Mong Kok.

While on assignment, he was stopped by a plainclothes police officer who said he was acting “suspiciously” and asked to see his identification card.

He was arrested after allegedly not complying with requests to present his identification despite multiple warnings.

Addressing the court on Wednesday, Chan’s barrister Steven Kwan said the officer ordered the journalist to produce his identification card on the basis that she had the right to under the Police Force Ordinance, according to local media.

But he said the wording of the law suggested officers do not in fact have that power.

Kwan said Section 54 of the ordinance describes empowering an officer to stop someone “for the purpose of demanding that he produce proof of his identity for inspection,” but does not explicitly state that officers have the power to stop them and demand identity proof.

He said the ordinance section, titled “power to stop, detain and search,” clearly indicated officers’ rights to those three actions – but not for demanding identity proof.

The power to demand proof is spelled out in two other ordinances, the Public Order Ordinance and the Immigration Ordinance, he said.

The Public Order Ordinance states that officers can order proof of identity if believed necessary for preventing or investigating an offence, he said.

Therefore, the officer should not have been able to rely on the ordinance to demand Chan produce his identity card, Kwan said.

In response, the Department of Justice representative accused Kwan of playing “word games” and attempting to rewrite the law.

Deputy High Court Judge Lily Wong heard both sides’ arguments on Wednesday and adjourned her decision.

Chan’s challenge comes after he lost his appeal in the High Court earlier this year.

In May, a High Court judge upheld Chan’s conviction and sentence, agreeing with the trial judge’s view that the police officer’s demand to see Chan’s identification card was lawful and that Chan had obstructed the police by wilfully delaying the presentation of his ID.

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Ryan Ho Kilpatrick is an award-winning journalist from Hong Kong. He was previously Managing Editor of the China Media Project and has reported from Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan for a variety of local and international media outlets, including The Washington Post, TIME, TaiwanPlus, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, and many more. He holds a BA in Modern China Studies and a Master of Journalism degree from the University of Hong Kong.