Hong Kong’s status as a bastion of press freedom is in crisis as authorities toughen their line against international media and fears grow about local self-censorship under the territory’s sweeping new security law.
For decades the former British colony has been a shining light for journalists in Asia, lying on the fringes of an authoritarian China where the Chinese Communist Party keeps a tight grip on public opinion.
The civil liberties that have stewarded the territory’s success were promised to Hong Kongers for another 50 years under a deal that returned the trading hub to Chinese rule in 1997.
However, Beijing’s new national security legislation — imposed in response to last year’s huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests — has sent a shiver through the financial hub’s media landscape.
“It’s a body blow. It’s the end of press freedom as we knew it in Hong Kong,” said Yuen Chan, a former local reporter, now senior lecturer in the journalism department of London’s City University.
The New York Times, CNN, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, CNBC, the Financial Times and Agence France-Presse are among numerous international media outlets with a presence in the territory, many basing their regional headquarters there.
Free from the harassment, censorship and restrictions pervasive on the authoritarian Chinese mainland, semi-autonomous Hong Kong has thrived as a safe haven for both local and foreign reporters.
However, signs of the sands shifting have begun to emerge since China introduced its draconian new law earlier this month.
On Tuesday last week the New York Times announced it would relocate a third of its staff to Seoul, saying it faced unprecedented trouble obtaining visas.
Hong Kong authorities recently launched a review of independent, but state-funded broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong following accusations it was overly sympathetic to pro-democracy protests.
Immediately after the security law was passed, two columnists quit the territory’s rambunctious Apple Daily, a staunch advocate for greater democracy.
The tabloid is owned by Jimmy Lai (黎智英), a tycoon who Chinese state media have labeled a leading “black hand” colluding with foreign forces to destroy the mainland.
Beijing has made little secret of its desire to rein in Hong Kong’s media, both domestic and foreign.
One provision of the national security legislation orders authorities to “strengthen the management” of foreign news organizations.
“It seems like they are starting to at least consider using the visa as a means to punish the people they don’t like,” said Keith Richburg, director of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong and a former foreign correspondent for the Washington Post.
In 2018, Financial Times journalist Victor Mallet was refused a visa renewal weeks after he hosted a talk at the territory’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club with an independence activist.
Sharron Fast, deputy director at Hong Kong University’s journalism program, said the clause about foreign media in the new law “sounds ominously like Hong Kong will move towards a China-style press credential requirement.”
The legislation also grants the territory’s police and China’s intelligence apparatus sweeping surveillance powers, something that Fast said could make it harder for journalists to protect their sources.
“It is basically open season on interception of communications and online surveillance,” she said.
Much of the law is broadly worded and criminalizes certain speech, such as a ban on instigating hatred toward the government or advocating independence.
Journalists fear they might inadvertently cross a red line by reporting what others say.
Media groups have warned that local outlets are particularly vulnerable.
Hong Kong reporters have historically been a crucial conduit of information out of mainland China, and the territory’s press corps routinely barrages officials with the kind of critical questioning that would be unthinkable north of the border.
Last week, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) was asked if she could “100 percent guarantee” media freedoms.
Her reply was that if reporters “guarantee that they will not commit any offences under this piece of national legislation,” then she could.
However, even before the security law, local media were under pressure, with advertising often drying up for the most Beijing-critical outlets.
“The problem of self-censorship, which has already been a concern, will get worse,” said Chris Yeung (楊健興) of the Hong Kong Journalists Association.
“It is likely that the mainland-style media control system and mechanism will be gradually introduced in Hong Kong,” he said.
However, Chan said the press would not be easily tamed.
“Journalists in Hong Kong will do as much as they can for as long as they can,” she said.
Lai was asked in an online Q&A on Friday about the future of his reporting staff.
“It’s very difficult to protect them. All I can do is tell them to do things according to their conscience,” he said. “I cannot ask them to be a martyr.”
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