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Lawmaker Claudia Mo protests against Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s refusal to explain why the government did not renew Financial Times journalist Victor Mallet's work visa, as the Policy Address is delivered in the Legislative Council chamber on October 10. Photo: Dickson Lee

Mallet visa: the more Hong Kong focuses on the West’s misdeeds, the more it fails to reflect on its own

I read Alex Lo’s column on October 10 with genuine dismay (“When mass murderers denounce petty thieves”). In it, he defends Hong Kong’s decision not to renew a work visa for the Financial Times’ Victor Mallet, which is presumably linked to Mr Mallet’s role as the Foreign Correspondents’ Club’s main spokesman when it hosted a talk by a pro-independence activist.

Mr Lo, as he so often does, defends the actions of Hong Kong by comparing them to the greater evils of others: in this case, the United States and Britain. If superpowers and former colonialists can kill journalists with impunity (though I note with interest that Mr Lo’s use of the word “serial killers” has been changed in the headline to “mass murderers”), then surely poor old Hong Kong can kick out some pesky journalist who conflates freedom of expression with a right to work in the city?

Mr Lo seems blind to the likelihood that by making constant comparisons with the dastardly deeds of others, he is preventing the city from examining its own.

Peter Russell, Tung Chung

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