The Hong Kong Journalist Association lost a legal challenge against the city’s police force as the High Court ruled on Monday that officers have not acted unlawfully in hindering journalists during coverage of protests last year.

The union filed for judicial review against the police commissioner and the force for failing to comply with constitutional and public law duties to facilitate journalistic activities in October last year. Judge Anderson Chow handed down the judgement on Monday, ruling in favor of the force which has widely been slammed for targeting and attacking reporters in the field.

Represented by Philip Dykes and Robert Pang, the HKJA submitted 13 statements with photographs and video evidence that showed journalists being subjected to excessive use of force and ill-treatment by the police, including being targeted with water cannon and tear gas, shot with rubber bullets, struck with batons, arrested or threatened with arrest, verbally abused and so forth.

They represent “a consistent, widespread and systemic pattern of police tactics that are adverse to, and interfere with, constitutionally protected journalistic activities,” said the association. It also noted that complaints made to the force were ignored or denied.

The police commissioner and the Secretary for Justice, represented by senior counsel Jenkin Suen, argued that officers have practical difficulties in differentiating genuine journalists from others, including fake journalists and protesters. He also criticized the terms of the declarations sought by the HKJA as “sweeping yet vague and imprecise.”

The court rejected the “assumed facts” approach raised by Dykes, noting that some of the many factual allegations in the association’s statements “are probably hotly disputed.”

“The critical question is whether the allegations can be proved, and whether there are other relevant facts and circumstances to be taken into account.These are not matters which can be determined in the present application for judicial review,” the judge wrote.

The HKJA has expressed great disappointment over the result. Though the judge did not fully uphold the association’s statements, it believed the public can decide by themselves whether the police have hindered journalistic activities and used excessive force on reporters.

The group also noted that it is very difficult for reporters to hold the authorities accountable for abuses of power and inappropriate actions through existing mechanisms, given the system for handling police complaints is inadequate.

Chow had earlier ruled in favor of the association against the police for failing to display their identification numbers and decided that the system for handling complaints against the force were inadequate.

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