The Hong Kong-based Associate Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and veteran media professional, Tan Huiyun, was scheduled to speak at a “Personality Interview Workshop” in Macau today (June 15) at the invitation of the Macau Media Workers Association. However, the association announced that she was refused entry by Macau security authorities this morning, leading to the cancellation of the workshop. The association later issued a statement expressing deep regret and strong protest against the unreasonable denial of Tan’s entry by Macau security authorities.
At around 1 pm today, the association posted an “Urgent Notice” on Facebook, stating that the “Good Writing Personality Interview Workshop” scheduled for 2 pm today had been cancelled due to the aforementioned reasons, with further details of the event to be announced later.
As of the deadline for this article, our newspaper has not received a response from the Macau Security Forces Affairs Bureau or the Macau Public Security Police regarding the incident.
Around 3 pm today, the association released a statement revealing that Tan arrived at the Macau Outer Harbor Pier around 11:40 am, where she was detained for questioning by police for half an hour. Eventually, the Macau Public Security Immigration Department refused her entry on the grounds of “public safety”. Tan Huiyun has since taken a flight back to Hong Kong at 1:30 pm.
The association questioned how a “Personality Interview Workshop could pose a threat to public safety”. The statement pointed out that Tan Huiyun had entered Macau smoothly last year and was expected to attend industry training activities and deliver a keynote speech at the workshop. They criticized the authorities for arbitrarily refusing her entry, stating that the grounds provided for the decision were absurd and raised concerns about the misuse of power and the impact on normal professional exchanges. The association urged the authorities to explain the legal basis for their decision.
If the authorities had concerns about “public safety” regarding the training activity, the statement welcomed direct inquiries to provide detailed explanations and emphasized that information about the workshop had been publicly available on social platforms. The association criticized the authorities for abusing laws under the banner of “public safety”, causing anxieties among Macau residents about the further erosion of basic freedoms and rights.
Tan Huiyun, a former journalist for Ming Pao and Cable News, currently contributes to the feature interviews and lengthy articles in Ming Pao’s Sunday Lifestyle supplement. She has been honored with human rights journalism awards including the “Newspaper Feature Award” and “Commentary and Analysis Award” from the Hong Kong division of Amnesty International, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Journalists Association.
Additionally, in 2020, she published a book titled “The Darker the Sky, the Brighter the Stars: People and Events of the Anti-Extradition Movement”.
According to a brief introduction of the “Good Writing Personality Interview Workshop” released by the Macau Media Workers’ Association on June 2, the workshop, sponsored by the Macau Foundation, was hosted by the association. The chairman of the Macau Foundation’s Board of Trustees is Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng, with members including influential figures like Angela Leong. The funding of the foundation primarily comes from local casino companies allocating 2% of gross revenue, government grants, donations from within and outside Macau, all with a certain public background.
Regarding the workshop itself, originally scheduled from 2 pm to 4:30 pm today at the Newman Suen Foundation Art Center in Macau. Promoted by the Macau Media Workers’ Association, the event was set to feature Tan Huiyun, a multiple-award-winning journalist, sharing her years of interview and writing experiences, focusing on techniques for interviewing personalities, enhancing article quality, and discussing journalistic ethics for interviewing vulnerable communities. The workshop was targeted at association members, journalists, freelance writers, and journalism students, with only 25 available slots.
In recent years, several Hong Kong citizens have been denied entry by Macau authorities, including former pro-democracy Yau Tsim Mong District Councilor Chu Kong Wai, who was denied entry in March 2023, and netizen Tsang Hing Kwong, nicknamed “Guang Zi Zi”, who was rejected in January of the same year, after law enforcement officers in Macau questioned his views on political issues, citing his “extreme remarks”.