#SupportAppleDaily #GlobalSupport
#ReportersWithoutBorders protests #AppleDaily closure at Chinese embassies in Paris and Berlin

The press freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (#RSF) marched through the streets of Paris and Berlin on June 25, 2021.

They protested the closure of the Hong Kong's pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, after Hong Kong's Beijing-backed authorities froze the paper's assets and arrested several executives.

The NGO said on their website that they held "funeral-style processions" to denounce the "killing" of Apple Daily by the Hong Kong government, and to "raise alarm of the threats" posed by the Beijing regime to press freedom globally.

In Paris, RSF placed a coffin and funeral flowers for the Hong Kong paper in front of the #ChineseEmbassy. At the same time, they buried copies of the newspaper in front of the embassy in Berlin.

RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said, "today's funeral is for Apple Daily, but tomorrow's may be for press freedom in China. It's time for the international community to act in line with their own values and obligations and defend what's left of the ,free press in Hong Kong before China's model of information control claims another victim."

Text: Deutsche Welle #Jun25

Photos: Reporters Without Borders
https://twitter.com/rsf_inter/status/1408397332190744579?s=21

#Paris #Berlin #Protests #NGO #Funeral

#ReportersWithoutBorders and 44-NGO coalition urge Chinese President #XiJinping to release #Covid19 reporter on #hungerstrike

//On September 17, 2021, Reporters Without Borders (#RSF) and a coalition of 44 human rights NGOs urged Chinese President Xi Jinping to exonerate and release Covid-19 reporter #ZhangZhan, who has been on hunger strike since May 2020, for which she was forced-fed.

“Zhang Zhan did not commit any crime but instead courageously risked her life to inform the public on the health crisis. She should never have been arrested, let alone subjected to a harsh prison sentence”, says the head of RSF East Asia bureau, Cédric Alviani, who urges President Xi Jinping to “ensure that Zhang Zhan is released before it’s too late.”//

Source: RSF #Sept17

https://rsf.org/en/news/rsf-and-44-ngo-coalition-urge-chinese-president-xi-jinping-release-covid-19-reporter-hunger-strike

Related news:
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/28615

#PoliticalProsecution #PressFreedom #Regime #CCPRules

#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

Interview
#CédricAlviani of #RSF: There might no longer be any freelance journalists in Hong Kong

Source: Chaser News #May3

Reas more
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#Interview
#CédricAlviani of #RSF: There might no longer be any freelance journalists in Hong Kong

May 3 is World Press Freedom Day. In the past year, freedom of press in Hong Kong seemed to have fallen into an unforeseen despair as independent news outlets such as Apple Daily and Stand News were forced to cease operation. Numerous senior journalists have also been arrested by the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police.

Cédric Alviani, of Reporters Without Borders (East Asia Representative Office), was interviewed by Chaser News on May 3, 2022. He expressed worries as the situation in Hong Kong was serious, and feared that foreign press could not conduct independent investigations and interviews in the near future.

Alvani said the world had to be aware of the things happening in Hong Kong, and that the democratic world could not accept the government being the sole information channel in Hong Kong and China.

With the tightening restrictions imposed by the Chinese Communist Party (#CCP), the National Security Law ‘is not only applicable to journalists in Hong Kong, but anywhere in the world’, threatening journalists from all over the world, and the Freedom of Press in democratic countries.

He called on the democratic parties to strike back, and to ‘firmly show to the Chinese government that oppressing Freedom of Press is no longer allowed, and that they must change for the better.’

Video: https://youtu.be/3y98BPjUxtE

Source: Chaser News #May3 https://www.patreon.com/posts/65904324

#RSF #PressFreedom #PoliceState