(To watch the full media session with sign language interpretation, click here.)

Chief Executive Carrie Lam today said several distinguished members of the community who had originally agreed to join an independent committee to review the causes of last year's social unrest had changed their minds due to personal reasons.

Speaking to the media, Mrs Lam said their reasons may be related to the fear of intimidation and doxxing.

“As I understand it, the reason why rather distinguished members of the community who had originally agreed to take up the task of either being a chairman or member of this independent review committee subsequently pulled out on personal reasons, I guess, was the fear of intimidation, the fear of doxxing on the Internet, and the fear of their relatives, friends or businesses being affected.

“So this is one of the very sad things that we have seen, in this almost one year of social unrest, that people tend to use force against people who have a different political stance or a different opinion, or simply because those people are supporting the role of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government or the Police Force.”