Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
Office of the Prime Minister
Ottawa
Canada

Vienna, 6 June 2000

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of journalists and editors, wishes to express its concern to the Canadian government at the treatment of two Hong Kong journalists by the Vancouver police.

On 27 May, journalists Lai Chai-Fai, of the Oriental Daily News, and Lam Nam, of the Sun, were arrested by police at the Richmond hospital in Vancouver for failing to have work visas. The two had visited the hospital to cover the story of a Hong Kong actress who was convalescing there.

Upon arrival at the police station, Lai and Lam had their spectacles removed and were forced to undergo a humiliating strip search. Lai and Lam were then detained in a cell and their every movement monitored by closed circuit television. A phone call to their offices in Hong Kong was also denied to them. The journalists were finally released after 40 hours of detention.

In the belief of IPI the treatment of the two journalists amounts to a flagrant abuse of police powers. While accepting that journalists should adhere to a country’s rules on work visas, IPI cannot see any justification for the arrest and extended detention of the two journalists. On the face of it, the arrest appears to be arbitrary in the extreme and the “strip search” a degrading act totally lacking in justification.

IPI would remind Your Excellency that under Article 5 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. Furthermore, under Article 9, the Declaration also states “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile”.

While accepting that an apology has been made to the two journalists through the offices of the Canadian Consulate General in Hong Kong, IPI calls on Your Excellency to ensure procedures and training which will avoid any repeat of this unfortunate incident in the future. In doing so Your Excellency will be affirming Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states, “human beings are born free and equal in dignity”.

We thank you for your attention.

Johann P. Fritz
Director