The room for free speech and a free press is becoming increasingly limited in Hong Kong, one year after the territory marked the 20th anniversary of its handover to China, Hong Kong Journalists Association chairman Chris Yeung (楊健興) said yesterday as the group released its annual report on freedom of expression.
The report, Candle in the Wind — National Security Law Looms Over Diminishing Freedoms, which was released in Chinese and English, covers topics ranging from the increased influence of state-owned digital media and government efforts to condemn “pro-independence views” to the threats that journalists face and staged confessions of political suspects.
Beijing’s increased emphasis on the notion of “one country” and national security was a “knife hanging over the heads of Hong Kong people,” Yeung said.
In the past year, the Chinese government has repeatedly mentioned enacting Article 23 of the Basic Law regarding national security and condemned Benny Tai (戴耀廷), a law professor and a cofounder of the Occupy movement, for discussing Hong Kong independence, Yeung told Hong Kong’s Ming Pao.
“The red lines are redder than ever and the bottom lines are moving higher,” he said.
Members of the public are avoiding being interviewed for fear of being punished, while reporters are self-censoring, and the result is less freedom of the press, he said.
“When reporters do a long story that involves digging into some politically sensitive issues, they might be categorized as trying to promote certain ideologies. To avoid troubles they may not cover things related to those issues,” he added.
The report called on the government to not enact Article 23 of the Basic Law and not to pass a national security bill, which it said would severely restrict the public’s freedom of expression.
It urged the government to pass a law on the freedom of information and work on protecting “the safety of Hong Kong reporters when reporting in the mainland.”
The report can be downloaded from the association’s Web site.
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