TOhen the latest news show came to a close and presenters said goodbye to their online audience on January 3, Chris Yeung, the founder and editor-in-chief of Citizen News, gathered his staff together and tried to strike an upbeat tone.
“Remember our best memories”, he said, dressed in a blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a crimson sweater draped over his shoulders. “Nobody knows what will happen next. Do not worry. Just remember the happy things. “
It was the day that 90 legislators were sworn in, mostly in favor of the system. The night before, the five-year-old independent Chinese-language news outlet said it was shutting down. It justified the decision by citing a deteriorating media environment and concerns for the safety of its staff.
It was a painful decision for Yeung and his editor-in-chief, Daisy Li. “If I am no longer confident enough to guide and lead my reporters, I must be responsible,” Li said last week. “Can we work on some ‘safe news’? I don’t even know what ‘safe news’ is. “
He added: “What has changed is not us but the external environment, objective.” On January 4, another outlet, Mad Dog Daily, followed suit, shutting down its operations along with Citizen News.
The latest developments came as no surprise to those following recent developments in Hong Kong’s once-free media industry. An exodus of journalists and editors from the territory’s most acclaimed media outlets, such as Cable TV and its public broadcaster, RTHK, in recent years has alarmed free speech advocates in the city and beyond.
Just a week ago, another Chinese-language news outlet, Stand News, was forced to shut down after 200 police officers raided its office and detained seven current and former employees. Two former senior editors were charged with conspiring to publish seditious materials and were denied bail.
The Stand News arrests came a day after Jimmy Lai, the former owner of the popular tabloid Apple Daily, and six of his former journalists were charged with new charges of “conspiracy to ‘print, publish, sell, offer for sale, distribute, display and / or reproduce seditious publications ”. Last June, the newspaper was forced to close. State media in Beijing called the newspaper a “bad apple that plagued Hong Kong for 20 years.” International Amnesty he said it was “the blackest day for press freedom in Hong Kong’s recent history.”
Across Asia, the erosion of press freedom has repeatedly made headlines in recent years. In Myanmar, dozens of journalists have been jailed since last year’s military coup. In Thailand, an emergency decree was announced to ban “fear-inducing” news after anti-government protests in 2020. And in the Philippines, the country’s most profitable broadcaster, ABS-CBN, was forced to shut that down. same year. These incidents are a poignant reminder that even the most successful media outlets would not survive the authoritarian resurgence in the region.
In Hong Kong, once a bastion of free speech within China’s territory, the intensified movement against independent media began shortly after Beijing imposed a controversial national security law in the summer of 2020. The The legislation drew strong criticism from western capitals, from Washington to London. . However, Hong Kong CEO Carrie Lam said the shutdown of news organizations “cannot be directly related” to press freedom in Hong Kong. He also rejected claims of a “chilling effect” on the city’s media landscape.
The assault on press freedom has continued after the Apple Daily saga. A few days after the tabloid closed last year, the city’s police chief, Raymond Siu, suggested that “fake news” legislation would be necessary to address “hostility to the police.” Its boss, Lam, announced a few weeks earlier that his administration was working on “fake news” legislation to address “misinformation, hatred and lies.”
“The authorities are simply putting more guns in their pockets to quell dissent,” Yeung told The Guardian after Siu’s speech in June. “It seems highly likely that this ‘fake news’ bill will be put on the agenda for the next legislative session.”
In recent years, the Hong Kong Journalists Association, which Yeung used to run, has drawn the ire of the authorities. Last fall, the city’s new security chief Chris Tang accused the organization of “violating professional ethics” by endorsing the idea that “everyone is a journalist.” In December, Tang gave his full support for the introduction of fake news legislation.
The psychological impact on Hong Kong journalists, once considered gossip by many, is evident. A November Poll published by the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club found that 84% of respondents felt that the situation had deteriorated since the introduction of the national security law. Some of the respondents admitted to a degree of self-censorship. Beijing accused the trade association of “sowing discord.”
“We are very nervous here about the future of media freedom in Hong Kong,” said Jemimah Steinfeld, China expert at London-based Index on Censorship. “Today it is hard to believe that until recently Hong Kong was the place for foreign media journalists to go if they wanted to report more freely on China. It is devastating ”.
For Hong Kong’s young and ambitious journalists, the devastation has been personal. When the police raided Apple Daily headquarters in 2020, one of its reporters was angry. “At first I was too stunned to react,” Oscar said in a Guardian documentary that year. “Then that turned to anger as I watched the events unfold.”
Last June, when the nails had been driven into the Apple Daily’s coffin, he met with a colleague on the subway platform to share his plans for the future. They greeted each other with a big hug and burst into tears. “We have never done anything wrong. We have always been doing our part and working hard to deliver good news. Why did we end up this way? ” he said.
Now, at the age of 25, Oscar has put down his pen and works as a photographer in Hong Kong. He said he “regretted” leaving Apple Daily in June. “I [had studied journalism] in college for four years, worked for Apple Daily part time and then full time [for] more than four years. It was my dream and my passion to be a great reporter, and I worked hard to achieve it. But it turned out to be that way, ”he said.
The rapid turn of events in his hometown in recent years has saddened him. Months after the massive street protests that began in 2019, the national security law went into effect. Authorities say such legislation is “necessary to ensure Hong Kong’s long-term stability and prosperity,” but critics say it is used to stifle dissent and is “draconian.”
In reality, there have been waves of arrests of people, from journalists to politicians, who disagree with the Beijing and Hong Kong governments. According to Reporters Without Borders, about two dozen journalists and press freedom defenders have been arrested since the implementation of the National Security Law in June 2020. Among them, at least a dozen have been charged or are in awaiting trial. Some opposition politicians, including Nathan Law, who was once the youngest lawmaker in the history of Hong Kong’s legislative council, are now living in exile.
For Oscar, his transition from reporter to photographer was reluctant. “This is not the decision I wanted to make, these are the times that forced me to stop being a reporter,” he said.
“I still want to be a reporter from the bottom of my heart. I am not afraid to sit in prison. But what about the people who work with me? Will they sit down for my work too? How about my family and my girlfriend? They would be absolutely heartbroken. “
But it’s not just the local Chinese-language news outlets that are feeling the chill. International news outlets such as the New York Times are already moving their base to other parts of the region because, according to the US company, the national security law “disturbed news organizations and created uncertainty about the city’s prospects as a center. for journalism ”.
Senior officials are now sending letters to foreign news organizations, urging them to support the authorities’ actions. “If you are genuinely interested in freedom of the press, you must support actions against people who have illegally exploited the media as a tool to pursue their political or personal gains,” wrote Hong Kong Chief Secretary John Lee, to the Wall Street Journal in a recent letter.
“Until now, the western media still operates with some degree of protection, but even this is eroding and many are choosing Taiwan instead,” Steinfeld observed. “The question is: how far will they be pushed or will they jump? Beijing has been killing chickens to scare monkeys, to quote the Chinese language, and it really is working. “
At Citizen News, outgoing journalists have been reflecting on their future in these uncertain times. On the eve of closing, there were tears in the newsroom and good wishes.
“We fight the good fight. We finished the course. We kept the faith, ”read a farewell card.
www.theguardian.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism