Hong Kong: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Tuesday would not explain why authorities rejected a work visa renewal for a prominent British journalist, in an unprecedented case that has tarnished the city's reputation and stoked outrage.

Victor Mallet, the Asia editor for the Financial Times newspaper, who has been based in Hong Kong for the past two years, was told last week his work visa would not be renewed.

Two months ago, Mallet hosted a luncheon speech at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) by an independence activist, Andy Chan, that Chinese and Hong Kong officials strongly criticised.

Zhang Xiaoming, the head of Beijing’s Hong Kong and Macau affairs office, told reporters at the time that the FCC had broken the law by hosting a “separatist” and was in effect aiding separatism.

The FCC, one of Asia’s leading press clubs said it neither endorsed nor opposed presenters’ views, but that was an institution that championed free speech.

Lam, however, addressing the controversy directly for the first time, skirted questions on whether Mallet was being punished for hosting Chan.

“What you said is pure speculation,” she told reporters.

But she declined to explain why Mallet has been effectively forced to leave the Asian financial hub.

She reiterated the position of other senior officials that authorities would not comment on an individual visa, and that the decision accorded with the law and the specific circumstances of the case.