#HumanRights #WhiteTerror
Hong Kong’s Human Rights Press Awards cancelled, citing legal risks

Source: Hong Kong Free Press

#PressFreedom

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#HumanRights #WhiteTerror
Hong Kong’s Human Rights Press Awards cancelled, citing legal risks

Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club (#FCC) has cancelled this year’s Human Rights Press Awards, citing “significant areas of uncertainty” under the law.

In a statement emailed to members on Monday, club president Keith Richburg said the FCC board met on Saturday and “after a lengthy discussion, regretfully decided to suspend the Human Rights Press Awards pending further review.”
The winners of the Human Rights Press Awards were expected to be announced on May 3, which is also World Press Freedom Day.

“Over the last two years, journalists in Hong Kong have been operating under new ‘red lines’ on what is and is not permissible, but there remain significant areas of uncertainty and we do not wish unintentionally to violate the law,” Richburg wrote. “This is the context in which we decided to suspend the Awards.”

“I know this is an unusual step to take so late in the process, just weeks before we were set to announce the winners,” he added.

According to FCC's website, “The Human Rights Press Awards recognise top rights-related reporting from around Asia, with the goal of increasing respect for people’s basic rights and focusing attention on threats to those freedoms.”

Since the onset of Hong Kong’s national security law in 2020, two of the city’s newsrooms have been raided and their top editors arrested, as press freedom NGOs have sounded the alarm. #AppleDaily, #StandNews and #CitizenNews are among the outlets that have shuttered.

Full article:
https://hongkongfp.com/2022/04/25/breaking-hong-kongs-human-rights-press-awards-cancelled/

Source: Hong Kong Free Press

#PressFreedom #HumanRights #WhiteTerror

#PressFreedom #Award #FCC #HKJournalistsAssociation
Hong Kong journalists win Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan press freedom prize

While the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (#FCC) in Hong Kong scrapped its annual human rights press awards just days before it was due to announce winners, claiming fear over the city’s wide-ranging national security law, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan offered Freedom of the Press Asia Award to all Hong Kong journalists.

Freelance journalist Ilgin Yorulmaz, co-chair of the club’s press freedom committee, said that the award recognised journalists and media organisations who fight for free speech, the free exchange of information, and fight against censorship.

Upon receiving the award, Ronson Chan, Associate Chairman of Hong Kong Journalists Association, said "although the environment changed, most of us have remained in our position and try our best to find the truth for the Hong Kong community.”

Source: Inmediahk, #Apr25

https://bit.ly/3Mn4lsK

#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

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

#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

#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

#Censorship #PressFreedom
Hong Kong Public Broadcaster cuts pro-democracy representation in Advisory Panel overseeing programme quality

A Hong Kong public broadcaster, Radio & Television Hong Kong (#RTHK), announced on May 10 that it is set to streamline its consultation framework.

Under the new framework, the advisory panel on programme standards that comprised several members of pro-democracy parties have ceased operation since April 2022. However, panellists from the pro-establishment camp can be retained.

Although Tik Chi-yuen, a member of the Advisory Panel, told the reporters that he was surprised by the RTHK's action, he defended it and said that it doesn't mean RTHK is not listening to public opinion.

Another member Fung Ying-him, a representative of Our Hong Kong Foundation supporting the new framework, said such an arrangement was "fine", as the Advisory Panel did not have an active role, but only met once a year.

Source: Inmediahk, #May12
https://bit.ly/3sviEny

#TikChiYuen #FungYingHim

Chief Executive-Elect Rejects Needs to Defend Freedom in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Chief Executive-Elect, John Lee visited the Legislative Council in early May and was asked why defending the freedom of speech and the press freedom was not in his election platform.

Lee argued that the city's mini-constitution, Basic Law has offered freedom in Hong Kong in many ways.

"We have all the freedom." He defended, "But this doesn't mean we have the freedom to violate the law."

Lee also added, "so long as permitted by the law, everyone has absolute freedom."

Source: Inmediahk; #May09

#ChiefExecutive #JohnLee #PressFreedom #FreedomOfSpeech

https://bit.ly/398Qbxa

One More News Outlet Closes Down in Hong Kong

#FactWire is an independent investigative news agency founded in Hong Kong in 2015, with the support of 3,300 Hong Kongers through crowd-funding.

For the past six years, FactWire has published a number of in-depth news reports, covering a wide range of topics from the safety issues at Taishan Nuclear Plant in China, the 2019 Anti Extradition protests, to the latest Chief Executive election in Hong Kong.

However, under the current political environment of Hong Kong, FactWire announced its closure on June 10, 2022. Despite the support of the public and their subscribers, the independent news agency made the decision to cease operation and dismiss all its employees.

In a statement published on their website, they wrote:

"In recent years, the media has contended with great change. Despite having wrestled many times with the difficult decision as to whether to continue our journalistic work, we had always come to the same affirmative conclusion: to stand fast to our core values and beliefs, and to always report the facts."

The news agency reiterated that "It is our honour to have been witnesses to, and scribes of Hong Kong’s history with you", and asked Hongkongers to "take care".

Read the statement:
https://www.factwire.org/en/termination-of-operation/

Source: Factwire; InMedia #June10

https://bit.ly/3ts2cF5

#FreedomOfSpeech #PressFreedom #AppleDaily #StandNews #CitizenNews

Police Took Down Identities of Journalists who Reported on Mourning for #LeungKinFai

A typhoon 8 warning was declared around 7pm on July 1. Large number of police vehicles and officers had been deployed to the Sogo department store in Causeway Bay, the site of Leung Kin-Fai's knife attack on a policce officer last year. The store itself had closed its doors by 7:30 due to the approaching typhoon.

Around 8:30, a large group of officers suddenly rushed at nearby journalists and surrounded them with cordons. The journalists were warned to stop taking photos and stop all live videos. Even journalists posted across the street were not spared; all who had been reporting and photographing the scene of mourning will be detained and had their identity taken down, an officer said. Any who did not cooperate would be considered to be "obstructing police", he added.

Earlier, a wheelchair-bound citizen who passed by was stopped and searched by more than 10 officers. Police extended their cordon to include the crosswalk outside Sogo.

source: #FirstHand #Jul01

see also:
Flowers Offered to #LeungKinFai on anniversary of Knife Attack; Offering May Violate National Security Law, Police Warned

https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/32960

#PoliceState #PressFreedom

#HongKong Bashes #GlobalMedia With Hundreds of Complaint Letters

//From Slovakia to Japan, top Hong Kong officials have fired off at least 500 letters in 2022 blasting critical foreign media coverage, as the city wages a global battle to safeguard its reputation as a liberal financial hub.

At least 174 media outlets in almost 30 countries received missives from city leaders -- including its now chief executive, #JohnLee -- since China announced in May 2020 that it would impose a national security law on the former British colony. The correspondence, often written both in English and the publication’s native language, was uploaded to the “Clarifications” tab of the government’s communications platform known as Brand Hong Kong.

About half of the letters, which responded to a mix of reports and editorials, hit back at criticism of Beijing’s sweeping security law, while roughly a third defended a mandate that only Communist Party loyalists can hold office in the city. Neighboring Asian nations got 42% of the complaints, led by Japan and South Korea, while business publications including the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Economist got the most letters. Bloomberg received seven...

Hong Kong’s crackdown on freedoms has eroded the city’s reputation among many foreign governments...

Hong Kong’s press freedom ranking has plummeted since the security law clamped down on free speech. The city came 148 in the Reporters Without Borders 2022 World Press Freedom Index, representing a fall of 68 places from last year.//

Source: Bloomberg #Jul25
https://t.co/OHZN4fVjye

#Whitewash #Censorship #PressFreedom #NationalSecurityLaw #PoliceState #Authoritarianism

#PressFreedom
Hong Kong media credibility drops to new low, study finds

Public trust in the credibility of Hong Kong’s media has fallen to its lowest level in two decades, according to a survey by the Chinese University of Hong Kong (#CUHK).

“That means people generally don’t trust the media enough. And the media may not be able to function properly trying to report on social issues, events and monitoring the situation for the citizens. So this is not good.”

Read full article
https://hongkongfp.com/2022/08/26/hong-kong-media-credibility-drops-to-new-low-study-finds/

Source: HKFP, #Aug26

#FirstHand #Sept7
Police Arrests Hong Kong Journalists Association's Chair

On September 7, 2022, veteran journalist and chairman of Hong Kong Journalists Association (#HKJA) #RonsonChan was arrested in Hong Kong for "obstructing police officers and disorder in public place".

It was reported that Chan and a photographer were on their way to a press briefing in Mong Kok, where they were intercepted by two plainclothes police officers for no apparent reason.

As Chan asked the officers for
police ID, they refused and accused Chan of being not cooperative. Within minutes, he was warned for multiple times and arrested.

Before mid-night, Chan was released on bail after being held at the Mong Kok police station for about 11 hours.

In an interview with local press, Chan told reporters that one of the police officers scoffed at him, "HKJA is trash". Later, he also taunted that "when will you die?"

Chan recited that his wrist was being forcefully held together, leaving a visible bruise mark.

Source: #FirstHand #Sept7

#PoliceState #Journalism #PressFreedom

Head of Hong Kong journalist group Ronson Chan charged with obstructing police officers during reporting

Ronson Chan, the chairperson of the city’s largest journalist group the Hong Kong Journalists Association (#HKJA), has been officially charged with obstructing police officers while reporting.

Speaking to reporters outside Mong Kok Police Station on Monday, the former Stand News reporter said that he had received a call from the force earlier in the day notifying him that he would be officially charged.

Chan said the charge would bring certain “disturbances and difficulties” for his planned departure to the UK on Wednesday to pursue a six-month fellowship programme at the Reuters Institute at Oxford University.

“Fortunately, the Oxford side says they will support me and they will see what will happen,” Chan said, adding that he will respect whatever decision the magistrate makes.

“If… I lost this chance, I will not [have] regret.” Chan added.

HKFP has reached out to the Reuters Institute for comment.

When HKFP asked what he thought the incident said about the status of press freedom in Hong Kong, Chan said “even in Beijing’s streets, you will never experience any charges for asking a policeman which unit he comes from or him to show his warrant card etc.”

“You can imagine how the environment Hong Kong reporters and journalists facing is – it’s not a very easy environment.” Chan added.

source: Hong Kong Free Press #Sep19
photo: #firsthand

full article: https://hongkongfp.com/2022/09/19/head-of-hong-kong-journalist-group-ronson-chan-charged-with-obstructing-police-officers-during-reporting/

#RonsonChan #PressFreedom

"Will of the People": Hong Kong Woman Describes Large Turnout of Mourners at British Consulate, but NowTV Quickly Deletes Interview

The British Consulate in Hong Kong had seen long queues of Hongkongers coming to pay tribute and sign the book of condolence for the late Queen Elizabeth II. On Sept 12, #NowTV News interviewed citizens waiting in the line; one of them, Ms. Chung, said, "I'm here to remember this great leader. Look how many people came; this is the will of the people."

The news clip was aired on the station's TV channel as well as its Facebook page. The post quickly received hundreds of likes.

Merely half an hour later, however, the post was taken down, and the station had also cut Ms. Chung's interview from the TV news segment.

The edit was reportedly ordered by NowTV News director Chan Tit-biu, who had the day off. Chan was a former news director at the pro-Beijing TVB News.

However, screenshots and video clips of the interview spread quickly, and the phrase "will of the people" (民心所向) soon became viral on social media. Netizens sarcastically commended Chan for making Ms. Chung's words of praise for the late Queen even more widely heard. "Receive our gift, Your Majesty!" one comment reads.

source: ReNews #Sep12

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=129455019839797&set=a.128212953297337

#PressFreedom #Censorship #WillOfThePeople #RIP #QueenElizabethII

UK vows to stand up to "Chinese aggression" and defend Hong Kong's freedoms

In a recent PMQ (Prime Minister's Questions) session, British Prime Minister #RishiSunak was asked to respond to the case of jailed media tycoon #JimmyLai, who is also a British citizen.

Speaking in parliament, Sunak insisted on Britain's right to get involved in its former colony. He pointed out that UK has admitted hundreds of thousands of HongKongers fleeing China's crackdown. He said it will remain robust in standing up to "Chinese aggression".

Sunak also condemned China's oppression and persecution and criticized China for breaking the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

He further stated that he will continue to handle Hong Kong affairs and defend Hong Kong's freedom.

Members of the Conservative Party, including former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, have met with Jimmy Lai's son Sebastien and called for the UK government to issue a warning to China and consider revoking Hong Kong's special administrative region status if China continues to prosecute citizens.

Source: Winandmac; #Jan11

https://www.winandmac.com/2023/01/uk-pmq-jimmylai-case/

#PressFreedom