Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has said that a French journalist was denied entry to Hong Kong in November, accusing the city’s authorities of “weaponising visas” against foreign media workers.
Antoine Vedeilhe, who was shooting a documentary for French public broadcaster France Télévisions, was questioned upon arrival at Hong Kong International Airport on November 2 last year.
He was detained for three hours before being deported without being given a reason, RSF said in a statement on Friday.
Vedeilhe was the 13th foreign media workers who has been denied entry or a visa by the city’s authorities following the Beijing’s imposition of the national security law in 2020, RSF said.
The watchdog said the figure is based on its tally, although it said there is reason to believe many cases have gone unreported due to fear of retaliation.
“On 2 November 2025, [Vedeilhe] was detained for three hours upon arriving at the Hong Kong International Airport… from France, during which he was questioned and subjected to a full-body search before being deported from the territory,” RSF said.
“In the journalist’s view, his detention was a reprisal for his work on a documentary examining Beijing’s grip on Hong Kong.”
Vedeilhe was travelling to Hong Kong to shoot a documentary for France Télévisions that will air next month, according to RSF.
Another cameraman for the documentary was able to enter the city, RSF said, but he was followed by “unidentified individuals that he suspects were Hong Kong’s national security police.”
“In the following days, there was a hacking attempt on Vedeilhe’s private email account and his sources in the documentary were harassed by the national security police,” RSF said.
HKFP has reached out to the Immigration Department and the Security Bureau for comment.
RSF also said France Télévisions received an email from an unknown individual the day after Vedeilhe’s deportation from Hong Kong.
The email warned the French media network that Vedeilhe’s work “comes into conflict” with the national security law and that the outlet’s “editorial choices could be considered ‘incitement to hatred’” – an element of Hong Kong’s sedition offence – according to RSF.
France Télévisions announced the documentary before Vedeilhe’s arrival in Hong Kong, RSF said.
‘Not isolated’
“His case illustrates how closely Hong Kong has aligned itself with China in repressing independent media, and how far the authorities are willing to go in targeting journalists,” RSF’s Asia Pacific advocacy manager, Aleksandra Bielakowska, said in the statement.
Vedeilhe was quoted saying in the statement that he had been travelling to Hong Kong for the past 10 years.
“[I] have always sought to give a voice both to those resisting Beijing’s growing control, and to those within the authorities and civil society who express their attachment to China,” Vedeilhe said.
“My… detention and expulsion are not isolated incidents, and they illustrate how increasingly difficult it has become for journalists to work in Hong Kong,” he added.
Vedeilhe is one of the few to speak openly about being denied entry into Hong Kong.
In August last year, Bloomberg journalist Rebecca Choong Wilkins was denied a work visa renewal by the Immigration Department. At that time, RSF said Wilkins was the 10th journalist whose visa had been denied since the national security law came into force.
The Immigration Department said then that it would not comment on individual cases.
Hong Kong has plummeted in international press freedom indices since the onset of the 2020 and 2024 security laws. Watchdogs cite the arrest and jailing of journalists, raids on newsrooms and the closure of around 10 media outlets including Apple Daily, Stand News and Citizen News. Over 1,000 journalists have lost their jobs, whilst many have emigrated. Meanwhile, the city’s government-funded broadcaster RTHK has adopted new editorial guidelines, purged its archives and axed news and satirical shows.
See also: Explainer: Hong Kong’s press freedom under the national security law
In 2022, Chief Executive John Lee said press freedom was “in the pocket” of Hongkongers but “nobody is above the law.” Although he has told the press to “tell a good Hong Kong story,” government departments have been reluctant to respond to story pitches.
