A documentary on Hong Kong journalist Ronson Chan has been withdrawn from screenings in Taiwan, Canada, the US, and the UK, citing “pressure on the interviewee.”
The documentary, titled A Single Spark A Little Blaze, was scheduled to be screened overseas alongside 11 other short films to showcase this year’s Hong Kong Indie Short Film Award finalists. Taiwan-based independent filmmaking organisation Ying E Chi organised the film award and the screenings.
“Due to the pressure on the interviewee, the director of ‘A Single Spark A Little Blaze’ decided to withdraw from all screenings,” the organiser said in a statement on Facebook on Tuesday.
“We sincerely regret it, but we respect the decision of the director and the interviewee,” the statement also read.
HKFP understands that the documentary features Chan as the sole interviewee.
A Single Spark A Little Blaze, a short film directed by Hong Kong independent journalist Cheng CC, follows Chan’s experience over the past few years.
Chan told HKFP over the phone on Wednesday that he could not reveal the source of the pressure.
“Of course, I can’t say who gave me the order or the reminder… It’s a kind reminder, nevertheless,” Chan said in Cantonese.
Cheng told HKFP that she had no comments on the matter.
The documentary was scheduled to be shown in five cities – New Taipei City in Taiwan, Toronto and Vancouver in Canada, Los Angeles in the US, and Manchester in the UK – from late June to early July.
Ying E Chi also said A Single Spark A Little Blaze would continue to participate in the film award’s final competition.
Growing pressure
Chan was the head of the Hong Kong Journalist Association (HKJA), an embattled local press union, from June 2021 to June 2024. He announced in May last year that he would not seek another term as HKJA president because of growing pressure from “false information and malicious smearing.”
The veteran journalist was also a senior editor at the now-shuttered Stand News in 2021, when authorities charged the news outlet with sedition and froze its assets totalling HK$61 million. Chan was briefly detained for questioning after a police raid at Stand News but was not prosecuted.
In September, former Stand News chief editor Chung Pui-kuen was jailed for one year and nine months over publishing “seditious” materials, while former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam was immediately released after sentencing due to a rare disease.
Chan joined the local media outlet Channel C in 2022. The outlet halted its operations in late April after police arrested a director at its parent company for alleged government loan fraud.
