HONG KONG – Hong Kong police chief has warned journalists they could be investigated for reporting on ‘fake news’. A newspaper controlled by the Chinese government has called for a ban on the city’s largest news agency for democracy. Masked men criticized the offices of a publication that criticized China’s Communist Party and crushed its press.
Hong Kong’s reputation as a bastion of press freedom in Asia, the home of much more aggressive and independent journalism than is found alongside mainland China, has been under sustained pressure for years. Now, as Beijing erases the disagreement in the city, the news media is being directly assaulted. Traditional printing tactics, such as advertising boycotts, have been obscured by the kind of campfire campaign that can silence prominent journalists and change or close their outlets.
Recent targets include the free-flowing pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, whose founder was sentenced last week to 14 months in prison, and RTHK, a public broadcaster known for its in-depth investigations. On Thursday, one of the network’s producers, Choy Yuk-ling, was found guilty of making false statements to obtain public records for a report that was critical of the police. She was ordered to pay a fine of 6,000 Hong Kong dollars, about $ 775.
“It seems like we’ve been turning a corner quite recently,” said Keith Richburg, director of the University of Hong Kong’s Journalistics and Media Studies Center. “Self-censorship is still an issue and do not know where the red lines are, but now we see more than a frontal assault on the media in Hong Kong.”
Beijing has long wanted to bring Hong Kong to the forefront. The city, a semi-autonomous Chinese territory since the British returned to its former colony in 1997, is run according to its own rules. Residents have seen freedoms on the continent, including unrestricted internet access, the right to protest and an independent press.
But after major protests in 2019, the city collapsed and sometimes became violent, the central government of China took on the unrest to quell. Last year, it imposed a strict national security law that criminalizes many forms of anti-government speech. Thereafter, Hong Kong’s electoral system changed, which sharpened the grip of power of the Beijing institution.
Pro-democracy lawmakers have been relieved of their duties. The protest movement was silenced. Activists were jailed. And journalists found themselves in the government’s crosshairs.
On Thursday, a court in Hong Kong found that Choy, a freelance producer, violated the law when she used a public database of license plate records as part of an investigation into an attack in July 2019 at a train station, in which 45 people was injured. Activists have accused police of wiping cloths around the violence.
The journalist, also known as Bao Choy, helped produce fine-tuned documentaries for RTHK investigating who was behind the attacks and why police were slow to respond. She was arrested in November and charged with making false statements about why she used the publicly accessible database.
Me. Choy said her case shows how the authorities are trying to crack down on the news media and restrict access to information that was once publicly available.
“I have realized since my arrest that this is not my individual problem,” she said in an interview. “This is a bigger issue of press freedom in Hong Kong.”
Press freedom groups denounced Mrs Choy’s arrest and described it as part of a campaign of harassment. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists calls the government’s case an “absurd out of proportion that amounts to an attack on press freedom.”
The case against Mrs. Choy is the latest step against RTHK, the leading public radio and television network in Hong Kong, which has been offering scathing reports from the government for years. The Exhaust Valve Charter grants editorial independence, but as a government entity it has little protection against officials wanting it to be brought under tighter control. Regina Ip, a pro-Beijing lawmaker, said last week that the government should consider closing it down completely.
Only a few months after the National Security Act was passed, the Hong Kong government called for RTHK to be more closely monitored by advisory advisers.
The head of RTHK, a veteran reporter and editor, was replaced in February by a government official with no journalistic experience. Under the new leader, Patrick Li, two radio programs known for their lively political commentary have been suspended.
Episodes of a television program focusing on the renovation of the city within a city and two documentary programs were drawn hours before it aired. One program on student activists was canceled after the broadcaster said it did not meet the standards of fairness and impartiality, and that it contained an inaccurate description of national law.
Journalists for RTHK said they were warned that their payment could be paid to cover the cost of censored programs. The broadcaster’s journalists are uncertain about where the new limits are and how they should proceed, said current and former employees.
Reporters Without Borders, the media freedom group, said on Tuesday that the Security Act poses a threat to journalists and that RTHK “is being subjected to a complete campaign of intimidation by the government with the aim of limiting its editorial autonomy.”
The Hong Kong government has rejected the allegation that RTHK is being targeted, saying it was ‘appalled’ by the proposal ‘that people with a particular profession should be immune from legal sanctions’, RTHK reported.
International newspapers also came under pressure in Hong Kong. An editor of the Financial Times was forced to leave the city in 2018, apparently retaliation for his role in delivering a speech by an independent activist. The New York Times has moved a number of editors from Hong Kong to Seoul, in part due to difficulties in obtaining work permits.
Epoch Times, a newspaper linked to the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which is banned in mainland China, has even covered blunt attacks. On April 12, four men stormed the printing press of the newspaper and printed presses and computers. According to the newspaper, no one was injured and it could start again shortly afterwards.
“Epoch Times is not afraid of violent coercion,” spokeswoman Cheryl Ng said in a statement.
Perhaps the most important target so far has been Jimmy Lai, the outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party who founded Apple Daily, the pro-democracy newspaper. He was sentenced last week to 14 months in prison after being convicted of unauthorized sitting in connection with two protests in 2019. But his legal danger is far from over.
Apple Daily’s news office was raided by police last year, and Mr. Lai is facing charges related to national security legislation for allegedly seeking US sanctions against Hong Kong. Under the law, crimes “of a serious nature”, a deliberate ambiguous term, carry sentences of life imprisonment.
The authorities were not ashamed to threaten journalists. They published their opinions on the pages of state media, on the floor of the local legislature and from the police headquarters.
State-run newspapers in Hong Kong have heightened their criticism of Apple Daily, calling for it to be regulated or even shut down under national security legislation.
“If Apple Daily is not removed, there is still a gap in Hong Kong’s national security,” Ta Kung Pao, a newspaper owned by Beijing’s Hong Kong liaison office, commented last week. said.
Me. Ip, the legislature, made clear to RTHK journalists what she believes their role is. In a legislative session last week, she said a reporter from the outlet should be prepared to be a mouthpiece from the government.
Hong Kong Police Commissioner Chris Tang warned last week that publications producing “fake news” could be investigated, and he called for new laws to regulate the media.
Nevertheless, many reporters say that the government’s efforts to stifle their reporting will not be thwarted.
“Some are disillusioned,” said Gladys Chiu, chairwoman of the RTHK Program Staff Union. “But some feel there is still room to fight for.”