Photo: A screeshot of saynotohkja.mystrikingly.com

Hong Kong journalists launched a campaign against the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA)'s "double standard and connivance with fake journalists" in reporting violent actions that have lasted for more than three months in Hong Kong. 

They also complained to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), urging it to disqualify HKJA's membership. 

"The HKJA has not only failed to perform its duties, but has also applied different standards to media and journalists, which shows their partial political position and severely damaged Hong Kong residents' impression of the local press. As Hong Kong media workers, we launched the campaign 'Say No to HKJA'," read a statement on the website, saynotohkja.mystrikingly.com. 

The website also posted name cards and work certificates of participants with their names covered. Words like "HKJA shame on you" and "HKJA ≠ ME" can be seen on these cards and certificates.

Hong Kong media workers also called for local residents to write to the IFJ and urge the federation to disqualify the HKJA's membership. 

They listed five "misconducts" by the HKJA, including indulging fake journalists and news, double standards and black-box operations.  

The HKJA, established in 1968, is one of the journalist associations in Hong Kong and a member of the Belgium-based IFJ. 

The HKJA's website claims that its sole purpose is to improve "the working environment for the men and women who gather the news in Hong Kong" and "accept no direct subsidies from any government or commercial organization." 

However, the HKJA showed its apparent partial political position and tendency in reporting the ongoing riots in Hong Kong. For example, when some rioters were exposed pretending to be journalists, the HKJA issued a statement saying that "anyone can be a journalist in a place that enjoys press freedom" and "a press card is not necessary when conducting interviews in Hong Kong."

Hong Kong media workers also questioned the transparency of the HKJA's executive elections. They said that the "Executive Committee and the Chairman of HKJA are nominally elected by the members. However, only election results appear on the website of HKJA without any information on the voting process." 

Most of the members of the association's Executive Committee are from media with the same political standpoint, and cannot represent the diversified voices in the Hong Kong media industry, and the HKJA violates the position of "defend democracy and media pluralism" of IFJ, the website said.