The Legislative Assembly (AL) issued a formal statement last night concerning the case where “journalists from a news media outlet disrupted the order of its operations” during last month’s three separate plenary sessions where Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai delivered his 2025 Policy Address, he answered questions from legislators about his policy address, and Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon answered questions from lawmakers about his portfolio’s policy guidelines respectively, providing clarifications concerning the legislature’s actions to handle the incident and its arrangements for journalists to cover the legislature’s plenary sessions.
The statement did not name the news media outlet concerned.
The statement said that with the aim of ensuring the effective conduct of the legislature’s plenary sessions, the legislature’s support office have adopted reasonable arrangements regarding the attendance of news media journalists and members of the public.
The statement said that given the large number of journalists covering the several plenary sessions concerning the 2025 Policy Address, and considering the hemicycle’s limited space for news coverage and number of seats, the legislature allowed journalists who were not permitted to stay in the hemicycle throughout the duration of the plenary sessions to watch the live broadcast in the legislature’s auditorium instead after taking the necessary photos showing the ongoing proceedings of the plenary sessions.
Regrettably, the statement said, journalists from the said news media outlet refused to comply with the legislature’s reasonable arrangements during the three plenary sessions held on April 14, 15 and 17 respectively, shouting and pushing against security lines, which seriously disrupted the order of the legislature’s plenary sessions.
The statement said that in order to put a stop to the situation and prevent further escalation, the legislature’s support office requested police assistance on April 17, after which police officers escorted the aforementioned journalists out of the Legislative Assembly’s building, to ensure the smooth continuation of the plenary session.
The statement underlined that the legislature always places great importance on the public’s right to know about the legislature’s work and highly respects news media outlets and journalists’ legitimate rights to conduct interviews and news reporting.
However, the statement said, these rights must be exercised within the limits established by law. The statement underlined that the legislature will take appropriate measures in accordance with the law to address and stop acts that severely disrupt its normal functioning.
According to the statement, the legislature “regrets and condemns the aforementioned acts by the journalists from the said news media outlet.”
According to previous local news reports, the news media outlet involved in the case is local Chinese-language online media All About Macau.
According to a statement by the Public Security Police (PSP) on the night of April 17 regarding the case, PSP officers took two online media reporters, in the morning of that day, in for questioning for their alleged disruptions to the legislature’s operations.
The PSP statement said that after investigating the incident, the police concluded that there exists strong evidence indicating that both individuals had violated Article 304 of the Penal Code – Disrupting the operations of Macau Special Administrative Region organs.
The case was then transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for further investigation.
According to Article 304 of the Penal Code, both face a prison term of up to three years or a fine.
The Macau Journalists Association (AJM) said in a brief statement on April 18 that it “deeply regrets the incident in which journalists from a monthly publication, including the AJM president, were taken away by the police for questioning during the coverage of the Legislative Assembly, and may face a possible criminal charge.”
This undated file photo released by the Legislative Assembly (AL) shows its building next to Nam Van Lake.
