Court rejects ex-press union head Ronson Chan’s bid to take police obstruction appeal to top court

A Hong Kong court has rejected a former press union head’s bid to lodge a final appeal against his conviction for obstructing police, for which he was jailed for five days.

Deputy High Court Judge Lily Wong on Friday refused to grant Ronson Chan, a former chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), a certificate to take his challenge to the Court of Final Appeal.

Chan has sought to overturn his conviction stemming from an encounter in September 2022, when he refused to show his identity card to a plainclothes police officer while reporting on a homeowners’ committee meeting in Mong Kok.

He was convicted in September 2023 and sentenced to five days in jail, but was granted bail pending an appeal. Chan served the prison term after losing the appeal – also presided over by Judge Wong – in May.

In seeking certification to appeal to the top court, Chan’s lawyer had earlier argued that whether the city’s Police Force Ordinance grants officers “free-standing power” to demand identity proof is a question of great and general importance.

‘Not reasonably arguable’

Judge Wong on Friday rejected the argument, saying in a Chinese-language judgment that the law was “unequivocal” in empowering police officers to stop individuals and demand proof of identity.

The argument presented by Chan’s lawyer ignored clear statutory provisions and effectively sought to strip police of their power to demand an identity card, the judge said.

“I therefore do not consider the argument presented to be a genuine legal argument. Even if it were a legal argument… I find that it is not reasonably arguable,” the judge wrote.

Despite Friday’s ruling, Chan can still apply directly to the Court of Final Appeal’s Appeal Committee for leave to appeal.

Chan was chair of the HKJA from 2021 to 2024. At the time of the offence, Chan was stopped by a plainclothes police officer who said he was acting “suspiciously” and asked to see his identification card.

He was arrested after refusing to do so despite multiple warnings.

The HKJA expressed “deep regret” after Chan lost his appeal in May and had to serve his five-day prison sentence, while Reporters Without Borders said it was “outraged” by Chan’s imprisonment.

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Hans Tse is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press with an interest in local politics, academia, and media transformation. He was previously a social science researcher, with writing published in the Social Movement Studies and Social Transformation of Chinese Societies journals. He holds an M.Phil in communication from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Before joining HKFP, he also worked as a freelance reporter for Initium between 2019 and 2021, where he covered the height - and aftermath - of the 2019 protests, as well as the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.