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Two Groups Submit Open Letter to PCPD (30 December 2019)

In response to the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong (PCPD)’s investigation of the incident where a police officer disclosed the Hong Kong Identity Card (ID card) of a reporter ^(Note), about 50 people from two groups, namely “維港之聲” and “珍惜群組”, went to the office of the PCPD this afternoon to submit an open letter. They held the Chinese national flag and banners with slogans “Strongly condemn the PCPD’s utter disregard for human life”, “Help the wicked perpetuate wicked deeds, make a mountain out of a molehill, suppress law enforcement by the Police”, and “Discharging duty, do not smear”.

A spokesperson of the group Ms Li pointed out that civil servants and organisations concerned were not united, and they should cooperate to stop violence and curb disorder. She also described the PCPD as having violated its responsibilities and missions, using professionalism to suppress law enforcement by the Police, and acting with utter disregard for human life. She criticised protestors for intimidating and blackmailing shop operators, causing heavy casualties to the citizens and the Police. She claimed that in six months only, the death toll had been quite large, the number of torn families was rising, and many families and people were ruined.

Li said that since the reunification of Hong Kong with China, she and other citizens’ phone numbers had been “betrayed” and they had been harassed every day. She said that there was already no privacy, and the PCPD had been useless and existed in name only. She also said that the privacy of more than 2,000 police officers had been made public on the internet, upon which the PCPD had taken no action. However, the PCPD acted upon a recent case where a reporter’s ID card was filmed. She claimed that the reporter could have turned off the video camera to prevent his ID card from being filmed.

A representative of the PCPD received an open letter from the spokesperson. The PCPD will carefully consider the letter and respond to the two groups.

Note: At a routine press conference on 27 December, the Police stated that it would investigate the incident of its own volition and cooperate with the PCPD when necessary.

The full text of the open letter is as follows: