Hong Kong has hit back at an international media watchdog’s statement that Hong Kong and mainland Chinese authorities had “continuously attacked” press freedom in the city, calling the comments “fact-twisting remarks and baseless smears”.
The Media Freedom Coalition said in a statement last Friday – the second anniversary of the closure of independent outlet Stand News – that the city’s media had intensified self-censorship since the Beijing-imposed national security law was enacted in June 2020.
“Members of the Media Freedom Coalition… remain deeply concerned at the Hong Kong and mainland Chinese authorities’ continued attacks on freedom of the press and their suppression of independent local media in Hong Kong,” the statement read.
There had also been an increase in prosecutions of media workers under the colonial-era sedition legislation, the coalition said.
“Use of these laws to suppress journalism undermines Hong Kong’s autonomy and the rights and freedoms of the people in Hong Kong as promised in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and guaranteed in the Basic Law,” the statement read.
Former editors of Stand News Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam have been accused of conspiring to publish seditious publications along with the outlet’s parent company, Best Pencil Limited. The verdict in that closely-watched case has been postponed pending a higher court’s ruling.
The coalition added that the Hong Kong authorities’ prosecutions of journalists including media mogul Jimmy Lai, who formally pleaded not guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces and publishing “seditious” materials on Tuesday, “creates a chilling effect on others in the press and media.”
Hong Kong has plummeted in international press freedom indices since the onset of the security law, with watchdogs citing the arrests of journalists, raids on newsrooms and the closure of around 10 media outlets including Apple Daily, Stand News and Citizen News.
Over 1,000 journalists have lost their jobs, and many have emigrated. Meanwhile, the city’s government-funded broadcaster RTHK has adopted new editorial guidelines, purged its archives and axed news and satirical shows.
“Freedom of the press has been central to Hong Kong’s success for many years. Curtailing the space for free expression of alternative views weakens vital checks and balances on executive power. The free flow and exchange of opinions and information is vital to Hong Kong’s people, business and international reputation,” the coalition’s statement read.
Press freedom ‘not absolute’
In response, the Hong Kong government said it “strongly disapproved of and firmly rejected the fact-twisting remarks and baseless smears by foreign countries including the United States and the United Kingdom.”
“Hong Kong people enjoy freedom of the press and freedom of speech as protected under the Basic Law and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights. Also, Article 4 of the Hong Kong National Security Law stipulates that such freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong residents shall be protected in accordance with the law in safeguarding national security in the HKSAR,” a government spokesman said.
“Nonetheless, freedom of the press and freedom of speech are not absolute,” the statement continued.
The media landscape is “as vibrant as ever,” the statement read, with a total of 213 media organisations registered with the government’s Information Services Department. “Their freedom of commenting on and criticising government policies remains uninhibited as long as this is not in violation of the law,” it said.
Attempts by foreign governments to undermine Hong Kong’s rule of law, prosperity, and stability would “only expose the countries’ own weakness and faulty arguments and be doomed to fail,” the statement read.
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