The fight for democracy and media freedom in Hong Kong feels like it has “entered its endgame,” after a year of crackdowns, arrests and forced closures of outlets, the International Federation for Journalists (IFJ) said.
In a report on the ongoing threats to the media in Hong Kong, titled Lights Out, the IFJ called on governments to offer support and pathways for Hong Kong journalists seeking to flee the territory and find refuge to keep working.
It said that there was “a clear and documented exodus and closure of both local and international media outlets, journalists and media workers that once earned Hong Kong a reputation as a bastion for media excellence in the Asia region.”
About 20 media workers, executives and defenders have been arrested or detained since China imposed the National Security Law on Hong Kong in June 2020, including high-profile figures such as Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai (黎智英).
In newly published letters from prison, the media mogul and democracy advocate said he feared the crackdown would eventually turn Hong Kong into “a cage, like Xinjiang,” where China is accused of incarcerating at least 1 million mostly Muslim minorities and other human rights abuses.
The IFJ report detailed the arrests, detentions, forced closures and other direct acts against the media, but also described more insidious efforts, including internal changes at national broadcasters, pro-Beijing media attacks and intimidation, and opacity around ever-shifting “red lines,” which the media struggle to navigate, as well as tightening restrictions on public records.
It said that fear and uncertainty now dominate life in Hong Kong, and “there is a now a palpable sense that the fight for democracy and media freedom has entered its endgame.”
“We haven’t come to this conclusion easily; it’s deeply concerning we’ve come to this point,” IFJ Asia Pacific director Jane Worthington said. “It’s changing the whole reporting map of Asia, what is happening in Hong Kong. It’s shuffling everything around.”
Since the introduction of the National Security Law, some foreign journalists have left, or been denied visas. The New York Times shifted staff to Seoul, while Initium Media decamped its headquarters to Singapore, and several journalists forced to leave China, who were unable to resettle in Hong Kong, have set up in Taiwan.
However, there are fewer options for Hong Kong journalists, Worthington said.
The IFJ said journalists who choose to move overseas would need support from foreign governments — akin to the UK’s pathways for Hongkongers — to continue their work in exile.
“We have a real argument that they are persecuted,” Worthington said. “Not all will have the economic circumstances to move themselves and their families... They need pathways.”
Of the media workers and defenders who have been detained, at least 12 have been charged with national security or other offenses, including Lai.
Arrested in August 2020, Lai has been in prison since December 2020, on remand and then serving sentences for a number of convictions, while also awaiting trial on national security charges.
In excerpts from prison letters written last year, to be published in next month’s issue of the Index on Censorship magazine, Lai railed against the government assault on freedom of the media and speech, and said he was relying on his faith as a source of strength while in jail.
Writing after Apple Daily’s closure, Lai said the “barbaric suppression” of Beijing and the Hong Kong government had worked and quieted the population.
“But the muted anger they have is not going away. Even those emigrating will have it forever,” he said.
“This Apple Daily shutdown only aggravates it, making it certain to people that the hopelessness of Hong Kong is irreversible. The more barbaric [the] treatment of Hong Kong people, [the] greater is their anger, and power of their potential resistance; [the] greater is the distrust of Beijing, of Hong Kong, [the] stricter is their rule to control,” Lai said. “The vicious circle of suppression-anger-and-distrust eventually will turn Hong Kong into a prison, a cage, like Xinjiang. World, cry for Hong Kong people.”
He also expressed some guilt over the suffering of his jailed fellow executives, in particular Apple Daily chief editor Lo Wai-kong (羅偉光).
“It would be disingenuous to say that by creating Apple Daily I have put him in this situation,” he wrote. “But I do have a guilty feeling and want to share his price of his cross, which is weighing too heavily on him.”
A few months later he wrote to staff in Canada.
“There is always a price to pay when you put truth, justice and goodness ahead of your own comfort, safety and physical well-being, or your life becomes a lie,” he said. “I choose truth instead of a lie and pay the price.”
In an article published in Newsweek on Monday last week, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged China to retake territories it lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. “If it is really for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t China take back Russia?” Lai asked, referring to territories lost in 1858 and 1860. The territories once made up the two flanks of northern Manchuria. Once ceded to Russia, they became part of the Russian far east. Claims since then have been made that China and Russia settled the disputes in the 1990s through the 2000s and that “China
Trips to the Kenting Peninsula in Pingtung County have dredged up a lot of public debate and furor, with many complaints about how expensive and unreasonable lodging is. Some people even call it a tourist “butchering ground.” Many local business owners stake claims to beach areas by setting up parasols and driving away people who do not rent them. The managing authority for the area — Kenting National Park — has long ignored the issue. Ultimately, this has affected the willingness of domestic travelers to go there, causing tourist numbers to plummet. In 2008, Taiwan opened the door to Chinese tourists and in
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region. The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the institution’s Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region project and former commander of the US Strategic Command. It also included former Australian minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne, influential US academics and other former policymakers. Think tank diplomacy is an important component of Taiwan’s efforts to maintain high-level dialogue with other nations with which it does
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) arrest is a significant development. He could have become president or vice president on a shared TPP-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ticket and could have stood again in 2028. If he is found guilty, there would be little chance of that, but what of his party? What about the third force in Taiwanese politics? What does this mean for the disenfranchised young people who he attracted, and what does it mean for his ambitious and ideologically fickle right-hand man, TPP caucus leader Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌)? Ko and Huang have been appealing to that
RSS