Police with rifles rushed to a MTR station just because a child had a toy gun...

#PoliceForce #MTR #NationalSecurity #GoHKgraphics

#PressFreedom
Hong Kong Drops to the 148th Ranking out of 180 in 2021 World Press Index

Source: RSF; Mingpao #May3
Image source: Chaser News

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#PressFreedom
Hong Kong Drops to the 148th Ranking out of 180 in 2021 World Press Index

The Reporter Without Borders (#RSF) announced the latest World Press Index on May 3, 2022. The ranking of Hong Kong drops from the 80th to the 148th place, hitting the city's lowest record and claiming the largest drop among all 180 territories included in the survey.

RSF in their report called Hong Kong "once a bastion of press freedom" which "has seen an unprecedented setback since 2020 when Beijing adopted a National Security Law aimed at silencing independent voices."

Regarding the media landscape, RSF pointed out that "since the 1997 handover to China, most media have fallen under the control of the government or pro-China groups. In 2021, two major independent news outlets, #AppleDaily and #StandNews, were forcefully shut down while numerous smaller-scale media outlets ceased operations, citing legal risks."

RSF also detailsd how the Hong Kong SAR government "froze the assets of Apple Daily and Stand News, forcing them to cease operations and causing the unemployment of 860 of their staff."

The National Security Law is also a cause to the massive drop in Hong Kong's ranking in the World Press Index. According to RSF, the law is "a pretext to gag independent voices in the name of the fight against “terrorism”, “secession”, “subversion”, and “collusion with foreign forces”. Due to its ambiguous phrasing, the law looks like it could apply to any journalist covering Hong Kong, regardless of their location."

Source: RSF; Mingpao #May3

https://bit.ly/3FebcSL

https://rsf.org/en/country/hong-kong

Is China In Decline?

Much of last week was spent in Rome, which is overwhelming in its sights, though the highlight for me was the peace of the Appian Way. Rome is also rich in lessons on civilisation, politics and strategy – many of which appear to be lost on leaders today. In that respect it is a good place to consider the rise and fall of nations, a phenomenon that is gathering pace.

Source: Forbes #May01

https://t.co/CaJPFdgcUR

#China #Decline

#SurveillanceState
LeaveHomeSafe app has built-in facial detection module, Hong Kong government admits

Source: FactWire; #May3

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#SurveillanceState
LeaveHomeSafe app has built-in facial detection module, Hong Kong government admits

#FactWire has discovered a facial detection feature in the source code of the government’s #LeaveHomeSafe mobile app, although it was unable to confirm whether the feature has been activated or if it is currently in use.

In response to FactWire’s inquiry, the government admitted to the existence of a facial detection feature in the application’s source code but claimed that it has never been used.

Read full article
https://www.factwire.org/en/leavehomesafe-app-has-built-in-facial-detection-module-government-admits/

#AntiELAB #HKJudicature #Injustice
Being re-arrested after 3 years, Mr. Yeung laments living in shadows, and hopes the legal expenses can be covered by book selling

Source: Inmedia #Apr15

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#AntiELAB #HKJudicature #Injustice
Being re-arrested after 3 years, Mr. Yeung laments living in shadows, and hopes the legal expenses can be covered by book selling

Mr Yeung Chi-Chun, the former teacher of Liberal Studies at a secondary school, whose eyesight was damaged by a bullet from the police on #Jun122019 at #Admiralty, was arrested yesterday (#Apr14) and charged with two crimes of unauthorised assembly.

After releasing from the bail, Yeung indicates on a Facebook post that he has prepared to be re-arrested due to the judicial review application on police identification number, showing his presence at Admiralty on June 12, 2019, but he will remain in Hong Kong despites living in the shadows. And that judicial review case has indeed become part of the evidence supplied by the prosecutors.

He is operating a publishing company, #HillwayCulture, and invites people to support his legal expenses by purchasing his book. The special edition of his book is expected to be published before July 21, the day before his trial. He said, "road is obstructed and long, but will eventually come to an end by perseverance".

Yeung describes the arrest process that he was informed about the charge against him and was asked to do a home search. He did not make a recorded statement but be on court on the same day with conditioned bail – 100,000 HK dollars, travel documents and reporting to the police three times a week.

Source: Inmedia #Apr15
https://bit.ly/37P5EBE

Hong Kong’s axed Human Rights Press Awards to be hosted by #ArizonaStateUniversity from 2023

Source: Hong Kong Free Press #May3

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Hong Kong’s axed Human Rights Press Awards to be hosted by #ArizonaStateUniversity from 2023

Arizona State University’s (ASU) journalism school will host the Human Rights Press Awards from next year, after Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club (#FCC) axed the event citing legal “red lines.”

Last week, the FCC scrapped this year’s awards after the defunct local outlet Stand News won nine accolades. Two former Stand News employees are facing sedition charges after the outlet was raided and its editors arrested last December [2021].

The press club’s move prompted a board member to step down and eight members of the club’s press freedom committee to resign. HKFP later obtained and published the full list of winners.

“Recognising exceptional reporting on human-rights issues is more important today than ever before, due to the many – and growing – threats to press freedom around the world. The Cronkite School is honoured to take on the administration of the Awards and we hope to expand their global reach as part of our #CronkiteGlobal initiative,” said Battinto L. Batts, Jr., dean of the Cronkite School in a press release.

Jeffrey Timmermans, who directs the school’s Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, will be the head judge. Timmermans, a former governor of the FCC in Hong Kong, told HKFP he believed that “all past winners of the Human Rights Press Awards should be recognised,” when asked about this year’s awardees. However, he said “there has been no decision yet.”//

Source: Hong Kong Free Press #May3
https://hongkongfp.com/2022/05/03/breaking-hong-kongs-axed-human-rights-press-awards-to-be-hosted-by-arizona-state-university-from-2023/

#PressFreedom #HumanRightsPressAward

#Election #FailedState
Hongkongers set up a Facebook page to make fun of the Chief Executive hopeful's poor writing skill

Source: Commons; #Apr21

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#Election #FailedState
Hongkongers set up a Facebook page to make fun of the Chief Executive hopeful's poor writing skill

Although most people in Hong Kong seldom pay much attention to the small-circle Chief Executive election, the substandard writing skill of the sole candidate, John Lee Ka-chiu, did stir up discussions and local people's interests.

In recent days, netizens created a public page on Facebook, titled "Daily Watch over Lee Ka-chiu's Chinese Writing Standard".

The page took a twisted approach to show "concerns" over this year's one-candidate-CE election.

It edited and even gave scores to the official posts on Lee's election page on Facebook.

Many of Lee's posts have seen heavily edited in red so that the language becomes more proper and readable.

To many people's surprise, Lee's election team actually took on many of these edits and amended their original writing.

Ah Chiu, (Pseudo name), administrator of the "Daily Watch" page expressed that since Lee failed to provide an election manifesto when he launched his election campaign, nor has he made meaningful contact with local citizens, his substandard writing skill, is perhaps, the only thing that people could remember.

Source: Commons; #Apr21
http://cmmns.co/9oIPR

#PressFreedom #Solidarity
Hongkongers Rebuild Article Archives of Apple Daily and Stand News

Source: Luminant HK, Collection.News

#Memory #PreservingHistory

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#PressFreedom #Solidarity
Hongkongers Rebuild Article Archives of Apple Daily and Stand News

Since the shutdown of #AppleDaily and #StandNews last year, a group of Hong Kong netizens had been hard at work building a platform to preserve their articles, so that they may once again see the light of day.

The article archives are now viewable online: https://collection.news/

The two Hong Kong news media companies, particularly Apple Daily with its 26-year history, had produced well over 2 million articles. Over a 10-month period, the Collection.News team rebuilt the archives of 2,375,868 text articles and 3,046,000 photos, and hosted them online using their own funds.

The archive's development team describes themselves as a group of Hongkongers who wish to preserve the city's history. They declare no affiliations with any news media groups. As the threat of National Security Law continues to loom over the city, the team found it necessary to operate anonymously, and does not accept donations. They had made their software open source, so that in case their website was shut down due to unforeseen circumstances, there would still be hope that the archives could be rebuilt once again.

The website's Chinese name 果靈 ("Spirit of Fruits") draws inspiration from the writings of 20th century philosopher Tang Chun-i. The team wishes to remind #Hongkongers that "we are not flowers and fruits that had lost our roots. Our spirit can take root everywhere, and ought to sprout in every heart."

"Though Apple Daily had died, we wish for everyone to own a little Apple seedling," they wrote on their website.

Source: Luminant HK, Collection.News
https://www.facebook.com/luminanthk/posts/522014396224956

#Memory #PreservingHistory

#PressFreedom #Censorship
Why the days of Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club may be numbered

//I fear the days of the FCC itself are numbered. ...//

// The end could happen suddenly, given the news on Monday [Ed. April 25] that the club had cancelled its annual Human Rights Press Awards because of the “red lines” China has drawn on what is permissible to be published and the club’s fear the awards could inadvertently cross into dangerous territory for the club, its members, and participants in the awards. //

Read full article
https://hongkongfp.com/2022/05/01/why-the-days-of-hong-kongs-foreign-correspondents-club-may-be-numbered/

#FCC #RedLine #HumanRights #WhiteTerror

#Exodus #Oppression
Pro-democracy political cartoonist announces departure from Hong Kong citing ‘great mental stress’

The comic artist, #AhTo, who has drawn satirical cartoons about local politics for 11 years, made the announcement on social media.

He shared a drawing of one of his iconic characters standing in front of what appeared to be the London cityscape and said he left because he “wanted to continue creating for HK.”

"Staying in HK to produce political cartoon [causes] great mental stress. [I] have no alternative but to leave,” the artist wrote on Facebook, without stating his destination.

Ah To said he had considered giving up on political cartoons in 2017 when HK’s social movement was “at low tide.” He also thought about changing the theme of his work last year.

But he deemed that HK “needed political cartoons,” and said he wanted to “persist” by remotely creating cartoons for his home city.

#WhiteTerror #NationalSecurityLaw

Source: Inmediahk, HKFP; #Apr26
https://bit.ly/3MwJfIk

#Indoctrination
Pro-Beijing Legislator Proposes Mandatory Uniformed Groups Membership for HK Youths

#NationalSecurity #BoyScouts #GirlGuides

Source: InMedia HK; #Apr27

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#Indoctrination
Pro-Beijing Legislator Proposes Mandatory Uniformed Groups Membership for HK Youths

The Hong Kong authorities had been heavily promoting national security through the city's youth uniformed groups. A legislative councilor posed a written question, requesting that the government require all students to join at least one uniformed group.

The Home Affairs Bureau replied that these groups are only an extracurricular activity, and schools generally allow students to choose whether to join.

The Bureau also reported the membership numbers of 11 youth uniformed groups that receive sponsorship from the government. 8 of these groups had seen their numbers fall in the past four years.

The Scouts Association of Hong Kong - whose Chief Scout is Chief Executive Carrie Lam - saw the largest drop of 4941 members, with 2936 in the past year alone. The Hong Kong Girl Guides Association, whose president is Regina Leung, the wife of former CE Leung Chun-Ying, also lost 2313 members.

Andrew Lam Siu-lo, the legislator who posed the question, belongs to the Election Committee constituency, which was newly created under the 2021 electoral changes imposed by Beijing in order to ensure only "patriots" govern Hong Kong.

Source: In-Media HK; #Apr27
https://bit.ly/3Kk0Guc

#Indoctrination #NationalSecurity #BoyScouts #GirlGuides

#PoliceState #SmallCircleElection
Hong Kong small-circle leadership race: Meet John Lee – the ex-police officer #Beijing trusts

Source: Hong Kong Free Press #May8

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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/32676

#PoliceState #SmallCircleElection
Hong Kong small-circle leadership race: Meet John Lee – the ex-police officer #Beijing trusts

[On May 8, 2022, #JohnLee, the sole candidate in the election, was selected by an election committee with 1,000 or so members to be the next Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR, after the end of #CarrieLam's term. Lee received 1,416 votes to become the political leader of a city of more than seven million people. Read: https://hongkongfp.com/2022/05/08/breaking-sole-candidate-john-lee-selected-as-hong-kongs-next-leader/]

//As a former beat cop who rose to become Hong Kong’s security chief, John Lee is the one person China’s leaders trust to run the city as their loyal lieutenant, analysts and insiders say.

Lee, 64, is expected to be anointed Hong Kong’s next chief executive by a small committee on Sunday, the culmination of a choreographed, Beijing-blessed race with no other candidates...

It also places a security official in the city’s top job for the first time, a man who played a key role in the suppression of huge democracy protests and Beijing’s subsequent political crackdown.

Insiders say Lee’s unwavering commitment to that role won China’s confidence at a time when other Hong Kong elite were seen as insufficiently loyal or competent...

Given his security background, it seems unlikely Lee — already sanctioned by the United States — will reverse Beijing’s campaign against dissent.

Where he will enter less familiar territory is the world of business, an area where Hong Kong is suffering...//

Source: Hong Kong Free Press #May8

#Regime #ChiefExecutiveElection

#View
Hong Kong National Security Law: Albeit disliking the Chinese Communist Party #CCP, youngsters in Hong Kong are still loving China.

Ying-shih YU: now is the best time to fight for democracy in Hong Kong.

#YuYingShih #HKProtest

Sources: Liberty Times, The Chaser News; #May2

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