Just hours after Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and 116 publishers, editors-in-chief, and senior editors from around the world called for the release of Apple Daily founder and RSF Press Freedom Prize laureate Jimmy Lai (in Cantonese: Lai Chee-ying), the Hong Kong government responded with a veiled threat.

It published a statement threatening in veiled terms the “organisations and individuals” who “interfere with the judicial proceedings” without explicitly mentioning RSF or the signatories to the call.

In the Hong Kong government’s views, calling for Lai’s release “is very likely to constitute the offence of criminal contempt of court or the offence of perverting the course of justice,” which could carry a sentence of respectively two and seven years in prison under the Criminal Procedure Ordinance in Hong Kong.

• READ MORE: ‘Free Jimmy Lai now’ plea by RSF and 116 global media leaders
• Other Jimmy Lai reports

The statement also claimed, against mounting evidence to the contrary, that press freedom was still being “respected and protected” in the territory.

It also said that the arrest and prosecution of Jimmy Lai and other press freedom defenders were “completely unrelated to the issue of press freedom”.

More than 100 media leaders from around the world have joined Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in signing an unprecedented joint statement expressing support for detained Apple Daily founder and publisher Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong.

They have called for his immediate release.

Among the signatories are publishers, editors-in-chief, and senior editors from 41 countries, including New Zealand — and two Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

• READ MORE: Other Jimmy Lai reports

This powerful joint statement is signed by 116 media leaders spanning 41 countries, from Egypt to Turkey, from India to Gambia, from Myanmar to Mongolia, and everywhere in between.

RSF coordinated this call in support of Jimmy Lai, who has become an emblematic figure in the fight for press freedom in Hong Kong and globally.

The action also seeks to highlight the broader dire state of press freedom in the Chinese-ruled territory, which has deteriorated sharply in recent years.

A former laureate of RSF’s Press Freedom Prize, 75-year-old Jimmy Lai has worked over the past 25 years to uphold the values of freedom of speech and press through his independent media outlet Apple Daily.

Concurrent sentences
Detained since December 2020 in a maximum security jail and repeatedly refused bail, Lai is already serving concurrent sentences on charges of attending “unauthorised” pro-democracy protests and allegations of fraud.

He now faces a possible life sentence under the draconian national security law, with his trial scheduled to start on September 25.

“We stand with Jimmy Lai. We believe he has been targeted for publishing independent reporting, and we condemn all charges against him,” said the RSF and co-signatories.

“We call for his immediate release.”

They also called for the release of all 13 currently detained journalists in Hong Kong, and for any remaining charges to be dropped against all 28 journalists targeted under national security and other laws over the past three years.

Among the signatories are 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureates Dmitry Muratov (Novaya Gazeta, Russia) and Maria Ressa (Rappler, the Philippines); publisher of The New York Times A.G. Sulzberger; publisher of The Washington Post Fred Ryan; CEO Goli Sheikholeslami as well as editor-in-chief Matthew Kaminski of Politico (USA); editors from a wide range of major UK newspapers including Chris Evans (The Telegraph), Tony Gallagher (The Times), Victoria Newton (The Sun), Alison Philipps (The Daily Mirror); Ted Verity (Mail newspapers), and Katharine Viner (The Guardian); editor-in-chief of Libération Dov Alfon, editorial director of L’Express Éric Chol and director of Le Monde Jérôme Fenoglio (France); editors-in-chief of Süddeutsche Zeitung Wolfgang Krach and Judith Wittwer, and editor-in-chief of Die Welt Jennifer Wilton (Germany); editor-in-chief of Expressen Klas Granström (Sweden); and many more from around the world.

Among the signatories is Dr David Robie, editor and publisher of the New Zealand-based Asia Pacific Report.

The RSF appeal over Apple Daily founder and publisher Jimmy Lai.

‘Powerful voices’
“We have brought these powerful voices together to show that the international media community will not tolerate the targeting of their fellow publisher. When press freedom is threatened anywhere, it is threatened everywhere,” said RSF’s secretary-general Christophe Deloire in a statement.

“Jimmy Lai must be released without further delay, along with all 13 detained journalists, and urgent steps taken to repair the severe damage that has been done to Hong Kong’s press freedom climate over the past three years, before it is too late.”

Jimmy Lai’s son Sebastien said: “Hong Kong is now a city shrouded in a blanket of fear. Those who criticise the authorities are threatened, prosecuted, imprisoned. My father has been in prison since 2020 because he spoke out against CCP [Chinese Community Party] power.

“Because he stood up for what he believes in. It is deeply moving to now see so many powerful voices — Nobel prize winners, and many of the leading newspapers and media organisations across the world — speak out for him.”

Over the past three years, China has used the national security law and other laws as a pretext to prosecute at least 28 journalists, press freedom defenders and collaborators in Hong Kong — 13 of whom remain in detention, including Lai and six staff of Apple Daily.

The newspaper itself was shut down — a move seen as the final nail in the coffin of press freedom in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is ranked 140th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2023 World Press Freedom Index, having plummeted down the rankings from 18th place in just 20 years.

China itself ranked 175th of the 180 countries and territories surveyed.

• The full text of the statement and list of signatories are here.

The number of people with covid-19 who have died in New Zealand has now reached 105, with 14 deaths reported in the past two days.

There are more than 206,000 active cases of covid-19 in the community, with another 18,699 new community cases reported today.

The Ministry of Health announced seven further deaths of people with covid-19 today which, after another seven deaths yesterday, has taken the total death toll to 105.

• READ MORE: Covid-19 update: Seven further deaths, 18,699 new community cases
• Other NZ covid outbreak reports

But University of Otago professor of international health Dr Philip Hill said international statistics for deaths showed that New Zealand’s number could easily have been in the thousands had the country not had high vaccination rates and effective pandemic restrictions.

“I think what we are seeing is just how wonderful a vaccine we’ve got, that we’re having a massive covid-19 outbreak and not experiencing huge numbers of deaths.”

Hill stressed it should be remembered that covid-19 was continuing to kill New Zealanders, and just like earlier variants omicron was a life-threatening disease.

But he said that with covid-19 so widespread some of the deaths in the death tally so far include people whose death occurred because of other causes, while they also had the virus.

“The classification of these deaths has not been complete for many of them, which basically means that there are significant numbers of people who are dying of something else and that coincidentally have covid-19. That can be quite tricky to tease out.”

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said there were 853 people in hospital with covid-19, including 17 in ICU.

However, Auckland health authorities remain cautiously optimistic that the omicron outbreak may have peaked in the country’s biggest city, and community case numbers in the region continue to slowly fall, with 6077 cases reported today — down from 7240 yesterday and less than half the number reported last week.

‘These are clearly seriously premature deaths’
Epidemiologist Professor Rod Jackson of Auckland University urged older people to take the risk of covid-19 seriously as the number of deaths from the virus continued to rise.

Six of the 14 deaths in the past two days were people in their seventies.

Jackson said it was inevitable that the older population would feel the effects of the virus as it passed from kids to their parents and onwards.

But he said it was not just the oldest people in the community who were at high risk.

“These are clearly seriously premature deaths, this is not just old sick people who are going to die in the next few days, these are people who are losing years of a potential healthy life,” he said.

Stark wake-up call
Dr Jackson said the death toll in Hong Kong was a stark wake-up call for those writing it off as a mild illness.

“You just have to look at Hong Kong today; it’s a population of 7.5 million, so it’s only New Zealand plus a half, and they’re having well over 200 deaths a day. Their health services are overwhelmed. They’re in big trouble at the moment.”

Dr Jackson urged people to keep acting with caution to prevent the spread, and to seek medical advice if they were concerned about their health.

On Thursday the Ministry of Health changed how covid-19-related deaths are reported.

The death of anyone who dies within 28 days of testing positive for covid-19 is now reported.

This group is divided into three categories:

• where covid-19 is the clear cause of death;
• where there was another clear cause of death; and
• where the cause of deaths is not known.

Deaths will mount
By Thursday this week, 34 people had died where covid-19 was clearly the cause, two people had died of another clear cause after testing positive for covid-19, and the deaths of 48 people with the virus did not yet have a clear cause, the ministry said.

As covid-19 cases mount, increasing numbers of deaths will also follow as people progress through the disease, the ministry said.

“It important to remember that each of these deaths represents significant loss for family and loved ones.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Hong Kong independent media Stand News has announced it has shut down following the arrest last week of six current and former members of its team.

The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called for the release of all journalists detained and urges democracies to react and defend what is left of the free press in the territory.

On the morning of December 29, six current and former team members of Chinese-language news site Stand News were arrested by the police force’s National Security Department on allegations of “conspiracy to publish seditious publications”, a colonial-era crime that bears a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

• READ MORE: Other Hong Kong democracy reports

The detainees are acting chief editor Patrick Lam Shiu-tung, former chief editor Chung Pui-kuen, and four former board members: Denise Ho Wan-see, Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, Chow Tat-chi and Christine Fang Meng-sang.

Next day, December 30, the four board members — Denise Ho Wan-see, Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, Chow Tat-chi and Christine Fang Meng-sang — were released on a bail, while chief editors Patrick Lam Shiu-tung and Chung Pui-kuen will stay in custody until the trial.

Simultaneously on the day of the arrests, a total of 200 police officers raided the Stand News office and searched the house of Stand News’ deputy assignment editor, Ronson Chan Long-sing.

Chan, who is also the chair of Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), was taken away and later released after questioning.

Defend ‘what’s left of free press’
“Exactly six months after the dismantling of the Next Digital group and its flagship newspaper Apple Daily, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam once again shows her determination to terminate press freedom in the territory by eliminating Stand News in a similar fashion”, said Cédric Alviani, RSF East Asia bureau head, who called for the release of all journalists and urges democracies “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”.

Stand News, an independent, non-profit, news website in Chinese founded in 2014, provided in-depth coverage of all trials related to the National Security Law, and was a nominee for the 2021 RSF Press Freedom Awards.

In June, Chief Executive Lam also used the National Security Law as pretext to shut down Apple Daily, the territory’s largest Chinese-language opposition newspaper, and to prosecute at least 12 journalists and press freedom defenders, 10 of whom are still detained.

In a report titled “The Great Leap Backwards of Journalism in China”, published on 7 December 2021, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) revealed the system of censorship and information control established by the Chinese regime and the global threat it poses to press freedom and democracy.

Hong Kong, once a bastion of press freedom, has fallen from 18th place in 2002 to 80th place in the 2020 RSF World Press Freedom Index.

The People’s Republic of China, for its part, has stagnated at 177th out of 180.

Republished with permission. Asia Pacific Report collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.

New Zealand’s condemnation of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council elections reflects a “hardening stance” towards China, says a leading defence analyst.

Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta last week joined her Five Eyes counterparts to express “grave concern” over the erosion of democratic elements of the new electoral system.

“Actions that undermine Hong Kong’s rights, freedoms and high degree of autonomy are threatening our shared wish to see Hong Kong succeed,” the joint statement reads.

• READ MORE: G7 condemns ‘erosion’ of democracy in Hong Kong election

Pro-Beijing candidates swept the seats under the new “patriots-only” rules that saw a record-low voting turnout of 30.2 percent; almost half of the previous legislative poll in 2016.

New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States are now urging the People’s Republic of China to respect protected rights and fundamental freedoms of Hong Kong.

Director of 36th Parallel Assessments Dr Paul Buchanan said this reflected New Zealand’s cooling relationship with China as it increasingly aligned itself with its traditional partners.

“It’s very clear something has shifted in the logic of the security community and foreign policy community in Wellington. I tend to believe it is Chinese behaviour rather than pressure from our allies, but it may be a combination of both,” he said.

Increasing Chinese pressure
New Zealand’s relationship with China has come under increasing pressure this year after it raised concerns about Chinese state-funded hacking and the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

Mahuta has previously said New Zealand would be “uncomfortable” with the remit of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance being expanded to include diplomatic matters.

Dr Buchanan said it was not clear if last week’s joint statement on the Hong Kong elections was consistent with this stated independent foreign policy, or a sign New Zealand had abandoned this to better align itself with its traditional partners.

“That’s an open question to me, because I can see that the government can maintain independence and say, ‘simply on the issue of Hong Kong and China we side with our traditional partners, but on any range of other issues, we don’t necessarily fall in line with them’,” he said.

“On the other hand, maybe the government has made a decision that the threat from the Chinese is of such a magnitude it’s time to pick a side, get off straddling the fence and choose the side of our traditional partners because the Chinese values are inimical to the New Zealand way of life.”

Dr Buchanan said a “hardening stance” towards China was in line with the contents of a new defence report that recently identified ‘China’s rise’ and its power struggle with the United States as one of the pre-eminent security risks in the Indo-Pacific.

“This may be more reflective of the security officials’ concerns about China and that may not be shared by the entirety of the current government.

General consensus
“Although, the fact that the foreign minister signed off on this latest Five Eyes statement regarding Hong Kong would indicate that there is a general consensus within the New Zealand foreign policy and security establishment that China is a threat.”

In response to the joint Five Eyes statement on Hong Kong, the Chinese Embassy issued a statement telling the members to stop interfering with Hong Kong and China’s affairs.

Of particular concern, Dr Buchanan said, was China’s explicit assertion in this response it was led by China’s Constitution and the Basic Law, not the Sino-British Joint Declaration, in its administration of Hong Kong.

“The Chinese now have said that the joint declaration signed in 1997, no longer applies and all that applies in Hong Kong is Chinese law.

“So they’ve violated their commitment to that principle and that’s symptomatic of an increasingly-hardened approach to everything, quite frankly, of a policy matter under Xi Jinping.”

Dr Buchanan said New Zealand, whose biggest trading partner is China, was positioned as the most vulnerable of the Five Eyes partners to any potential economic retaliation from China.

“It would be pretty easy to see that if the Chinese are going to retaliate against anybody in the Anglophone world, it would more than likely be us because it’ll cost them very little, people have to change their dietary habits among the Chinese middle class, but it will have a dramatic effect on us because a third of our GDP is tied up with bilateral trade with China.

“But the government has clearly signalled that it’s seeking to diversify. It has now signalled that on the diplomatic and security front, it sees the Chinese increasingly as a malign actor, and so whatever is coming on the horizon, this government at least appears prepared to weather the storm.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The Paris-based global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned three “dictatorial regimes” — Belarus, China and Myanmar — for their role in a global surge in the jailing of journalists doing their job.

According to the RSF annual round-up, a record number of journalists — 488, including 60 women — are currently detained worldwide, while another 65 are being held hostage.

Meanwhile, the number of journalists killed in 2021 — 46 — is at its lowest in 20 years.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific Media Watch reports

RSF said in a statement that the number of journalists detained in connection with their work had never been this high since the watchdog began publishing its annual round-up in 1995.

RSF logged a total of 488 journalists and media workers in prison in mid-December 2021, or 20 percent more than at the same time last year.

This exceptional surge in arbitrary detention is due, above all, to three countries — Myanmar, where the military retook power in a coup on 1 February 2021; Belarus, which has seen a major crackdown since Alexander Lukashenko’s disputed reelection in August 2020; and Xi Jinping’s China, which is tightening its grip on Hong Kong, the special administrative region once seen as a regional model of respect for press freedom.

RSF has also never previously registered so many female journalists in prison, with a total of 60 currently detained in connection with their work – a third (33 percent) more than at this time last year.

China world’s biggest jailer of journalists
China, the world’s biggest jailer of journalists for the fifth year running, is also the biggest jailer of female journalists, with 19 currently detained. They include Zhang Zhan, a 2021 RSF Press Freedom laureate, who is now critically ill.

Belarus is currently holding more female journalists (17) than male (15). They include two reporters for the Poland-based independent Belarusian TV channel Belsat — Daria Chultsova and Katsiaryna Andreyeva — who were sentenced to two years in a prison camp for providing live coverage of an unauthorised demonstration.

In Myanmar, of the 53 journalists and media workers detained, nine are women.

“The extremely high number of journalists in arbitrary detention is the work of three dictatorial regimes,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

“It is a reflection of the reinforcement of dictatorial power worldwide, an accumulation of crises, and the lack of any scruples on the part of these regimes. It may also be the result of new geopolitical power relationships in which authoritarian regimes are not being subjected to enough pressure to curb their crackdowns.”

Another striking feature of this year’s round-up is the fall in the number of journalists killed in connection with their work — 46 from 1 January to 1 December 2021. The year 2003 was the last time that fewer than 50 journalists were killed.

This year’s fall is mostly due to a decline in the intensity of conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen and to campaigning by press freedom organisations, including RSF, for the implementation of international and national mechanisms aimed at protecting journalists.

Journalists deliberately targeted
Nonetheless, despite this remarkable fall, an average of nearly one journalist a week is still being killed in connection with their work. And RSF has established that 65 percent of the journalists killed in 2021 were deliberately targeted and eliminated.

Mexico and Afghanistan are again the two deadliest countries, with seven journalists killed in Mexico and six in Afghanistan. Yemen and India share third place, with four journalists killed in each country.

In addition to these figures, the 2021 round-up also mentions some of the year’s most striking cases. This year’s longest prison sentence, 15 years, was handed down to both Ali Aboluhom in Saudi Arabia and Pham Chi Dung in Vietnam.

The longest and most Kafkaesque trials are being inflicted on Amadou Vamoulké in Cameroon and Ali Anouzla in Morocco.

The oldest detained journalists are Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong and Kayvan Samimi Behbahani in Iran, who are 74 and 73 years old.

The French journalist Olivier Dubois was the only foreign journalist to be abducted this year. He has been held hostage in Mali since April 8.

Since 1995, RSF has been compiling annual round-ups of violence and abuses against journalists based on precise data gathered from 1 January to 1 December of the year in question.

“The 2021 round-up figures include professional journalists, non-professional journalists and media workers,” RSF explains.

“We gather detailed information that allows us to affirm with certainty or a great deal of confidence that the detention, abduction, disappearance or death of each journalist was a direct result of their journalistic work. Our methodology may explain differences between our figures and those of other organisations.”

Reporters Without Borders and Pacific Media Watch collaborate.

Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Facebook to restore a video honouring the winners of the International Press Freedom Awards (IPFA) at CPJ’s annual awards ceremony held on November 18 and streamed on social media during the event.

Less than an hour after the stream ended, Facebook notified CPJ that the video had been withheld worldwide because of a “copyright match” to a 13-second clip owned by i-Cable News, a Hong Kong-based Cantonese-language cable news channel, reports CPJ.

CPJ emailed i-Cable Communications Limited on November 24 requesting details but received no immediate reply.

• READ MORE: Hong Kong media freedom

The clip, featuring Jimmy Lai taking a bite from an apple, was taken from an advertisement for the now-shuttered Apple Daily dating from the 1990s when he founded the newspaper.

Currently imprisoned by Chinese authorities, Lai has become a powerful symbol of press freedom as the Chinese Communist Party seeks to gain control over Hong Kong’s media and was honoured during CPJ’s award ceremony for his work.

It is not clear if Facebook applied the action automatically, or whether i-Cable News complained in an attempt to suppress the video.

The news group, i-Cable, signed an agreement in 2018 with China Mobile Limited, a state-owned telecommunication company, allowing China Mobile to use its content for the next 20 years.

“It is beyond ironic that a platform which trumpets its commitment to freedom of speech should block a video celebrating journalists who risk their lives and liberty defending it,” CPJ deputy executive director Robert Mahoney said.

“Facebook must restore the video immediately and provide a clear and timely explanation of why it was censored in the first place.”

A lawyer at Donaldson and Callif, which vetted the IPFA video for Culture House, the production house that cut the video, told CPJ in an email that the firm was of the opinion that the clip of Lai “constitutes a fair use as used in this IPFA video”.

The full awards video — and its comments, views and share — remains unavailable to Facebook users worldwide. The IPFA video is still available on YouTube and Twitter.

CPJ contacted Facebook on November 19 and again on November 22 outlining CPJ’s concerns about the video’s removal but has yet to receive an explanation for the action by the company.

CPJ has documented examples of US copyright laws being used to censor journalism globally.

The press freedom organisation has held IPFA award ceremonies since 1991 as a way to honour at-risk journalists around the globe and highlight erosions of press freedom.

Republished from Committee to Protect Journalists.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has published a gallery of grim portraits — those of 37 heads of state or government who crack down massively on press freedom, reports RSF.

Some of these “predators of press freedom” have been operating for more than two decades while others have just joined the blacklist, which for the first time includes two women and a European predator.

Nearly half (17) of the predators are making their first appearance on the 2021 list, which RSF is publishing five years after the last one, from 2016.

All are heads of state or government who trample on press freedom by creating a censorship apparatus, jailing journalists arbitrarily or inciting violence against them, when they do not have blood on their hands because they have directly or indirectly pushed for journalists to be murdered.

Nineteen of these predators rule countries that are coloured red on the RSF’s press freedom map, meaning their situation is classified as “bad” for journalism, and 16 rule countries coloured black, meaning the situation is “very bad.”

The average age of the predators is 66. More than a third (13) of these tyrants come from the Asia-Pacific region.

“There are now 37 leaders from around the world in RSF’s predators of press freedom gallery and no one could say this list is exhaustive,” said RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire.

“Each of these predators has their own style. Some impose a reign of terror by issuing irrational and paranoid orders.

Others adopt a carefully constructed strategy based on draconian laws.

A major challenge now is for these predators to pay the highest possible price for their oppressive behaviour. We must not let their methods become the new normal.”

• READ MORE: See the RSF Predators gallery

New entrants
The most notable of the list’s new entrants is undoubtedly Saudi Arabia’s 35-year-old crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who is the centre of all power in his hands and heads a monarchy that tolerates no press freedom.

His repressive methods include spying and threats that have  sometimes led to abduction, torture and other unthinkable acts. Jamal Khashoggi’s horrific murder exposed a predatory method that is simply barbaric.

The new entrants also include predators of a very different nature such as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, whose aggressive and crude rhetoric about the media has reached new heights since the start of the pandemic, and a European prime minister, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, the self-proclaimed champion of “illiberal democracy” who has steadily and effectively undermined media pluralism and independence since being returned to power in 2010.

Women predators
The first two women predators are both from Asia. One is Carrie Lam, who heads a government that was still democratic when she took over.

The chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region since 2017, Lam has proved to be the puppet of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and now openly supports his predatory policies towards the media.

They led to the closure of Hong Kong’s leading independent newspaper, Apple Daily, on June 24 and the jailing of its founder, Jimmy Lai, a 2020 RSF Press Freedom laureate.

The other woman predator is Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s prime minister since 2009 and the daughter of the country’s independence hero. Her predatory exploits include the adoption of a digital security law in 2018 that has led to more than 70 journalists and bloggers being prosecuted.

Historic predators
Some of the predators have been on this list since RSF began compiling it 20 years ago. Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, were on the very first list, as were two leaders from the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko, whose recent predatory inventiveness has won him even more notoriety.

In all, seven of the 37 leaders on the latest list have retained their places since the first list  RSF published in 2001.

Three of the historic predators are from Africa, the region where they reign longest. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, 79, has been Equatorial Guinea’s president since 1979, while Isaias Afwerki, whose country is ranked last in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index, has been Eritrea’s president since 1993.

Paul Kagame, who was appointed Rwanda’s vice-president in 1994 before taking over as president in 2000, will be able to continue ruling until 2034.

For each of the predators, RSF has compiled a file identifying their “predatory method,” how they censor and persecute journalists, and their “favourite targets” –- the kinds of journalists and media outlets they go after.

The file also includes quotations from speeches or interviews in which they “justify” their predatory behaviour, and their country’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index.

RSF published a list of Digital Press Freedom Predators in 2020 and plans to publish a list of non-state predators before the end of 2021.

Asia Pacific Report and Pacific Media Watch collaborate with the Paris-based RSF.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has staged parallel protests outside the Chinese embassies in Paris and Berlin, holding 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.

Arriving at the Chinese embassy following a hearse, RSF representatives in Paris staged a mock funeral procession, delivering a coffin and funeral flowers with a placard inscribed “Apple Daily (1995-2021).”

In Berlin, RSF representatives staged a parallel action, “burying” the daily newspaper which was one of the last major independent Chinese-language media critical of the Beijing regime.

• READ MORE: The scrappy Hong Kong tabloid that refused to bow to Beijing
• AJF, RSF and other media freedom watchdogs condemn China’s ‘suffocation’ of free press

Two days prior, Apple Daily announced that it must cease all operations from June 27, with the last print edition of its newspaper to be published on June 24, due to the government’s decision to freeze its financial assets, leaving the media outlet unable to pay their employees and suppliers, reports RSF in a statement.

RSF condemns the killing of the outlet perpetrated by Chief Executive Carrie Lam by order of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and calls for the immediate release of all detained Apple Daily employees as well as the media outlet’s founder Jimmy Lai, RSF 2020 Press Freedom Prize laureate.

“We have gathered today to raise alarm about the urgent risk of death to press freedom in Hong Kong,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire told reporters gathered outside the Chinese embassy in Paris.

“Democracies cannot continue to stand idly by while the Chinese regime systematically erodes what’s left of the country’s independent media, as it has already done in the rest of the country.

International community ‘must act’
“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.”

Deloire also called out China’s Ambassador to France Lu Shaye, who last week gave an interview labelling media critical of the Chinese regime a “media machine” and journalists criticising Chinese authorities as “mad hyenas”.

Lu Shaye believes there is no need for a plurality of media: “With two or three groups and a few people, we can become the vanguard of the war of public opinion and we can coordinate this war well.”

Lu Shaye has previously been critical of French media, stating last year at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemics: “I’m not saying the French media always tell lies about China, but much of their reporting on China is not true.”

Earlier this week, RSF submitted an urgent appeal asking the UN to “take all necessary measures” to safeguard press freedom in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong, once a bastion of press freedom, has fallen from 18th place in 2002 to 80th place in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

The People’s Republic of China, for its part, has stagnated at 177th out of 180.

Pacific Media Watch works in association with Reporters Without Borders.

Apple Daily has announced its imminent closure in a dark day for Hong Kong’s press freedom and democracy, sparking condemnation by global media freedom watchdogs.

The Australian-based Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom, Reporters Without Borders in Paris and the Committee to Protect Journalists were among the watchdogs that issued statements criticised the crackdown by authorities that has forced Hong Kong’s last pro-democracy daily to close.

Founded by Jimmy Lai, who is currently jailed on a series of charges including unlawful assembly, fraud and “colluding with foreign forces”, Apple Daily has been a longstanding and well-read publisher for 26 years.

• READ MORE: The ordeal of Apple Daily’s Jimmy Lai
• The rise and fall of Apple Daily

This closure comes days after more than 100 police raided their offices, arrested five Apple Daily executives and froze their assets on Monday. Another columnist was arrested yesterday afternoon.

These incidents occurred under a new National Security Law, which critics say restricts the territory’s autonomy and undermines the human rights of its citizens.

Peter Greste, spokesperson and director of the AJF said:

“Since the national security law was introduced, we’ve seen: the arrest and ongoing detention of Jimmy Lai as he awaits trial; the freezing of a news publisher’s assets so they can no longer pay their staff; the mass-raid of the publisher’s offices – in numbers fit for terrorists – and the arrest of five executives; and the arrest of a columnist during a company board meeting only days later.

‘This is not normal’
“This is not normal. This is not democracy,” said Dr Greste, who is also the UNESCO chair in journalism at the University of Queensland, Brisbane.

“Press freedom and democracy cannot function when journalism in the public interest is restricted or denied. Apple Daily was a vocal critic of the government, but that should not be a crime.

“They were a legitimate news outlet. If a publisher like Apple Daily cannot exist in Hong Kong anymore, it is hard to see what remains of their democracy.

“The AJF implores Hong Kong to re-commit to the democratic principle of press freedom, release the Apple Daily journalists and employees now in custody, and unfreeze the company’s assets so they can continue to report freely.”

In Paris, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) deplored the “suffocation” of independent media following the announcement by the parent Next Digital media group’s board of directors yesterday that Apple Daily would cease all its operations from Sunday, June 27, due to the government’s decision to freeze its financial assets, leaving the media outlet unable to pay their employees and suppliers.

On Tuesday, June 22, RSF submitted an urgent appeal to the United Nations, asking the organisation to “take all necessary measures” to safeguard press freedom in Hong Kong.

“The tearing down of Apple Daily, one of the last major Chinese-language media critical of the Beijing regime, after years of harassment, is sending a chilling message to Hong Kong journalists,” said Cédric Alviani, RSF East Asia bureau head.

Erasing press freedom
“If the international community does not respond with the utmost determination, President Xi Jinping will know that he can erase press freedom in Hong Kong with complete impunity, as he has already done in the rest of China.”

In New York, the Committee to Protect Journalists also denounced the Chinese government’s “outrageous efforts to stomp out critical voices in Hong Kong”.

Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia programme coordinator, said: “Even under colonial rule, the people of Hong Kong enjoyed robust freedom of expression. China has managed to snuff that out, in stark violation of firm commitments it made to the people of Hong Kong during the handover from British rule in 1997.”

Apple Daily, launched in 1995, was one of the last major Chinese-language media to still dare publish information contradicting the Beijing regime’s propaganda and editorials critical of its authoritarian policies, and for many years it was the target of harassment by government and pro-Beijing camps.

On the 17 June 2021, approximately 500 police officers raided its headquarters and five executive staff members were arrested on suspicion of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces”, a crime that bears a life sentence under the National Security Law imposed last year by the Chinese regime.

Apple Daily founder and 2020 RSF Press Freedom Awards laureate, Jimmy Lai, detained since December 2020, was recently sentenced to a total of 20 months in prison for taking part in three “unauthorised” pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019 and also faces six other procedures, including two charges for which he risks life imprisonment.

On the May 28, RSF submitted another urgent appeal asking the UN to “take all measures necessary’ to obtain his immediate release.

Hong Kong, once a bastion of press freedom, has fallen from 18th place in 2002 to 80th place in the 2021 RSF World Press Freedom Index.

The People’s Republic of China, for its part, has stagnated at 177th out of 180.

Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned yesterday’s police raid on Hong Kong media outlet Apple Daily’s headquarters — the second time in less than one year — and has urged the release of the five arrested senior staff.

On 17 June, 2021 independent Hong Kong media outlet Apple Daily’s chief editor Ryan Law, chief executive Cheung Kim-hung, chief operating officer Royston Chow, associate publisher Chan Pui-man and director of Apple Daily Digital Cheung Chi-wai were arrested on suspicion of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces”, a crime that bears a life sentence under the National Security Law imposed last year by the Chinese regime.

Approximately 500 police officers also raided the media outlet’s headquarters, forcing journalists to leave the newsroom, seizing their computers, phones and other devices.

• READ MORE: RSF appeals to the UN to act for the release of Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai

Authorities have also frozen Apple Daily’s HK$18 million assets (about €2 million).

“Today’s arrests and raid on Apple Daily’s headquarters show that the government will do anything in their power to silence one of the last independent media outlets and symbols of press freedom in Hong Kong”, said Cédric Alviani, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) East Asia bureau head.

He called for “all charges to be dropped and all defendants immediately released”.

This is not the first time that Hong Kong police have raided the media outlet’s headquarters: in August 2020, 200 police officers searched Apple Daily’s premises, blocked its journalists from entering the newsroom and obstructed several major news outlets from covering the incident.

Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai, 2020 RSF Press Freedom Awards laureate, has been detained since December 2020 and was recently sentenced to a total of 20 months in prison for taking part in three “unauthorised” pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

He also faces six other procedures, including two charges under the National Security Law for which he risks life imprisonment.

Hong Kong, once a bastion of press freedom, has fallen from 18th place in 2002 to 80th place in the 2021 RSF World Press Freedom Index.

The People’s Republic of China, for its part, has stagnated at 177th out of 180.

Pacific Media Watch is an associate of Reporters Without Borders.

Hong Kong police on June 4 deployed 7000 officers in Victoria Park and across the city to ensure that there was no organised commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre in public spaces.

At 7.40 am, four police officers arrested democracy activist Chow Hang-tung outside her office building to prevent her from heading to Victoria Park. There have been no reports indicating that she has been released.

Hong Kong held candlelight vigils to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre for three decades.

• READ MORE: Tiananmen vigil stifled but HK activists say history ‘not erased’

In 2020, Hong Kong police banned the event for the first time, citing anti-coronavirus measures. Victoria Park is the park where the vigils were held.

Her crime? Standing up for justice. https://t.co/IF8Z1BHvey

— Maya Wang 王松莲 (@wang_maya) June 4, 2021

Chow is the vice-president of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (HK Alliance), the group that organised the annual vigil.

She told press that she would go to Victoria Park on her own and light a candle on June 4, despite the threat of jail time for “inciting illegal assembly”.

#HongKongPolice will deploy 7,000 officers at Victoria Park and across the city on #June4th to stop HKers from commemorating the 1989 #TiananmenSquareMassacre. People wearing black, chanting slogans or holding candles may be arrested. https://t.co/KNHU1imGuf#AppleDailyENG pic.twitter.com/sTpjj5sCFD

— Apple Daily HK 蘋果日報 (@appledaily_hk) June 3, 2021

Lawyer and activist Chow Hang Tung is fighting to keep the memory of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown alive in Hong Kong, despite facing possible imprisonment for publicly commemorating the event https://t.co/LhBGNiIBvV pic.twitter.com/ps447HiilX

— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) June 2, 2021

24 activists charged
At least 24 pro-democracy activists were charged with participating in last year’s unauthorised vigil, of whom four have been sentenced to jail terms up to 10 months.

The others are awaiting trials and sentencing.

Hong Kong Secretary for Security John Lee warned that under the Public Order Ordinance, offenders could face up to five years in prison for attending the vigil, or up to one year for promoting it.

After the vigil was banned, Beijing’s political adviser on Hong Kong affairs Tian Feilong urged Hong Kong security services to investigate HK Alliance for breaching the infamous national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong last year.

He argued that the organisation’s mission statement, which calls for the end of one-party dictatorship, is in violation of the law, since the Chinese Communist Party’s dictatorship is written into the Chinese constitution.

On June 3, Executive Council member Ronny Tong warned that people wearing black clothing and chanting slogans such as “end one-party dictatorship” could be prosecuted for violating either that law or the law against unauthorised assembly.

It would not matter if protesters appeared in different parts of the city, as long as their actions could be viewed as coordinated, Tong said.

He did however state that individual commemorations of the anniversary were not forbidden.

Safe spaces targeted, shut down
As police mobilised across the city to prevent potential demonstrations, law enforcement units and pro-Beijing groups harassed the public in order to prevent them from attending other potential commemoration activities – even those being held in private venues.

Seven Catholic churches which planned to hold evening mass on June 4 became a focal point for attacks:

As churches offer a safe space for people to remember June 4th, banners are going up outside their premises: “Cult invasion of faith. Antichrist, fake messiahs. Chaos in the name of worship. Subversion of religion, blood on their hands. Churchgoers be aware of violating the NSL.” pic.twitter.com/3HAGOZkJoi

— K Tse (@ktse852) June 3, 2021

On June 2, HK Alliance announced that its June 4 Museum had been shut down after officials from the Food and Environmental Hygiene department accused it of operating as a place of public entertainment without required licences.

In spite of all the legal threats, individuals are finding their own ways to commemorate the anniversary in public.

Hong Kong’s June 4 Museum has closed temporarily over questions about its license. The space opened a decade ago. It is dedicated to commemorating victims of China’s 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. pic.twitter.com/LmeT2nI4tp

— Radio Free Asia (@RadioFreeAsia) June 2, 2021

On June 3, a group of artists put on a public art performance at Causeway Bay:

#hk – a group of artists carried out acts in memory of #june4 at Causeway Bay, the night before the banned vigil pic.twitter.com/TuagG7t79t

— Lok. (@sumlokkei) June 3, 2021

A number of individuals went to Victoria Park to hold “one person vigils”:

#TiananmenSquareMassacre ：A few people gather at Victoria park to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre on the eve of June 4.

#June4 #HongKong pic.twitter.com/IuNBLGFeQ6

— Ryan Lai (@ryan_lai1214) June 3, 2021

A large number of June 4 posters were seen in different districts across the city today.

Many citizens wore clothes that conveyed political messages. They said on social media that they planned to light candles at 8 p.m, regardless of where they were in the city.

Oiwan Lam is Global Voices northeast Asia regional editor. She is also a media activist, researcher and educator currently based in Hong Kong. Her Chinese writings are in inmediahk.net and her twitter account is @oiwan. This article is republished from Global Voices under a Creative Commons licence.

The Hong Kong police force has charged media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, founder of Next Digital Limited, which owns the Apple Daily newspaper, with collusion with foreign forces under Hong Kong’s controversial new national security law, reports the Committee to Protect Journalists.

It is a charge that carries up to life in prison if convicted, according to the Apple Daily and news reports.

“Charging Jimmy Lai under Hong Kong’s new national security law marks a dangerous escalation in China’s attacks on Hong Kong’s independent media,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia programme coordinator, in Washington, DC.

“China appears intent on crushing what remains of Hong Kong’s much vaunted tradition of press freedom. Lai should be freed at once, and all the charges he is facing should be dropped,” he said.

• READ MORE: RSF denounces arrest of Apple Daily founder

Lai has been in custody since police detained him and two Apple Daily executives on a fraud charge on December 2, as CPJ documented at the time.

He is expected to remain in jail at least until a court hearing on April 16, 2021, as a court rejected his bail bid on December 3, according to news reports.

Lai’s collusion charge will enter court proceedings tomorrow at the West Kowloon Courts, according to those reports.

The Hong Kong Police Force did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.

Hong Kong’s government-funded broadcaster, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), is under fire again.

Last week, police arrested freelance TV producer Bao Choy Yuk-ling under allegations that she made a false statement to obtain information on car owners, claiming that she had violated the Hong Kong’s Road Traffic Ordinance.

Choy obtained the information during her reporting for the documentary 7.21: Who Owns the Truth?, aired on the programme Hong Kong Connection.

• READ MORE: A Hong Kong reporter’s account of the crackdown on press freedom under the national security law
• Hong Kong’s pro-democracy legislators resign en masse

The documentary investigated individuals potentially involved in the Yuen Long attacks of 2019, in which a pro-Beijing mob of more than 100 men stormed the Yuen Long MTR station wielding steel rods and canes and attacked protesters returning home from an anti-extradition demonstration.

The incident left 45 people injured, including journalists and commuters, and became one of the most notorious events of Hong Kong’s year-long protests.

Using surveillance footage from the nearby area, the documentary producers were able to track down the legal owners of the cars who took the rod-wielding men to Yuen Long.

Hong Kong reporters have for years used car plate records in their reporting for media outlets of different political camps, most commonly by crime, traffic, and entertainment beat reporters.

First to be arrested for car plates probe
Choy is the first to be arrested for the practice. If convicted, she could face a HK$5,000 (US$645) fine and six months’ imprisonment.

Choy – who appeared in court on November 10 – told reporters her case was no longer a personal matter but involved the public interest and press freedom. Dozens of members of the media gathered outside the court to show support.

Choy’s documentary 7.21: Who Owns The Truth?

Her case was adjourned to January and she remains free on bail.

But this was not the first time the government appeared to have cracked down on RTHK, which in theory enjoys editorial independence despite receiving public funding and has traditionally been allowed to cover politically sensitive topics.

Hong Kong journalists get approval for protest march against producer’s arrest after police objections overturned https://t.co/hcJPO0259p pic.twitter.com/50H1rYMXl7

— Hong Kong Free Press HKFP (@hkfp) November 13, 2020

Amid the political turmoil since the pro-democracy movement erupted last year and the national security law was enacted in July, the public broadcaster has been under fire from various quarters as the government appears to tighten its grip.

Below is a list of some of the recent developments:

RTHK staff required to pledge loyalty
Most of RTHK staff is employed on civil service terms. The government has decided that all those who joined the civil service on or after July 1, when the national security law came into force, should pledge allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and promise to uphold its constitution known as the Basic Law.

In addition to newcomers, the requirement also applies to existing staff members whose employment is confirmed after completing probation, when contracts are renewed, or when they are up for promotion.

Questions arise as to whether the public broadcaster can stay impartial in its reporting after staff have been compelled to pledge allegiance to the government.

Acting deputy steps down, citing health reasons
The public also raised eyebrows when the Deputy Director of Broadcasting Kirindi Chan resigned in June after serving less than a year in the position. She cited health and personal reasons.

At that time, the broadcaster was criticised for airing a 20-episode programme about the national security law that was perceived to be sympathetic to Beijing.

The programme attended a direct request by RTKH’s government-appointed advisory board, who instructed the broadcaster to ease public concerns about the then-looming law.

Chan served more than 30 years at the broadcaster and had overseen numerous current affairs shows, but in her latest position, she was not directly involved in the production of the controversial programmes.

Amen Ng, director of corporate communications and standards at RTHK, said Chan’s main duty was administration and the decision was not political.

Nabela Qoser probation extended
RTHK has also come under pressure to rein in reporters who ask “disrespectful” questions of senior officials.

In September, the public broadcaster reopened an investigation into Nabela Qoser, an assistant programme officer who had provoked complaints from the public when she confronted the city’s leader Carrie Lam at a press conference after the July 21 Yuen Long mob attack on MTR travellers.

Lam was asked: “Did you learn about it only this morning? Were you able to sleep well last night?” and Qoser also asked her to “speak like a human.”

An initial investigation found that Qoser had done nothing wrong, but shortly before completing her three-year probation period, she was informed that it would be extended for another 120 days for further inquiries.

Union chair Gladys Chiu slammed the decision and said asking difficult questions should not hinder a reporter’s prospects of promotion or confirmation of employment. Lam refused to comment on the case, which she described as a human resources issue.

Interview with WHO top adviser criticised
In March, RTHK News programme The Pulse was criticised by the Hong Kong government for allegedly breaching the One China policy after its producer Yvonne Tong asked questions about Taiwan’s efforts to join the World Health Organisation.

In a video call, Tong asked the WHO’s Dr Bruce Aylward to comment on the Taiwan government’s performance in containing the covid-19 pandemic, and whether the organisation would reconsider the island’s membership.

Dr Aylward appeared to have hung up the call and evaded the question after reconnection.

Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau said the programme breached the principle that there is only one sovereign China. The Director of Broadcasting Leung Ka-wing should be held responsible for RTHK‘s deviation from its charter, Yau added, and RTHK should educate the public about One Country, Two Systems.

Review team set up, pressure by advisory board
In July, the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau set up a team to review RTHK’s governance and management, following the Communications Authority’s findings of bias, inaccuracy and hostility to the police force.

The review aimed to ensure the broadcaster complied with the service charter and codes of practice on programming standards issued by the authority. Charles Mok, the lawmaker representing the IT sector, said he feared the review would compromise the station’s editorial and creative freedom.

In May, the satirical show Headliner received a warning from the Communications Authority after the authority ruled as “substantiated” complaints that an episode aired in February had denigrated and insulted the police force.

The episode implied that police had more protective gear than healthcare staff when the covid-19 pandemic first emerged.

Eventually, the 31-year-old show suspended production after airing the final episode in June.

Personal view programme suspended
In April, the Communications Authority warned the broadcaster over its personal view programme Pentaprism, after it substantiated complaints that an episode contained inaccuracy, incitement of hatred to the police and unfairness. It featured a guest host who criticised the police handling of unrest around the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in November last year.

Complaints about four other episodes which featured guest hosts commenting on police anti-protest operations were also substantiated in September. RTHK decided to suspend the programme in early August, before it received the warnings.
National anthem to be aired every morning

The latest development is that starting from November 16, 2020, the Chinese national anthem – March of the Volunteers – will be aired at 8am every day ahead of news reports on all RTHK radio channels.

Spokesperson Amen Ng said that according to its charter, the public broadcaster should enhance citizens’ understanding of One Country, Two Systems and nurture their civic and national identity. The new arrangement is necessary, she said.

This article was originally published on Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) on 11 November  2020. This edited version is published by Global Voices and the Pacific Media Centre under a content partnership agreement.

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders global media freedom watchdog has denounced the arrest of Jimmy Lai, the founder of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.

Lai, 71, was arrested at his home residence on the morning of August 10, 2020, accused of “colluding with foreign forces”.

Lai’s two sons and at least seven other members of his team were also arrested.

READ MORE: Jimmy Lai arrested – Freedom loses again in Hong Kong

According to the new National Security Law imposed on June 30 by the Chinese regime, Lai risks life imprisonment if put on trial in Hong Kong, and may even face the death penalty if the trial takes place in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which the law does not exclude.

Simultaneously, 200 police officers raided Apple Daily’s headquarters, blocking its journalists from entering the newsroom and obstructing several other major news outlets from covering the incident including Associated Press (AP), Agence France-Presse (AFP), Reuters, Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK, and local media Initium, In-media and Stand News.

“By charging Apple Daily’s founder with ‘colluding with foreign forces’, the Hong Kong government clearly seeks to take down a symbolic figure of press freedom”, said Christophe Deloire, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Secretary General, who urges that “all charges to be dropped and all defendants immediately released”.

Coverage of pro-democracy protests
Next Digital (formerly Next Media), the parent company of Apple Daily, is one of the few remaining Hong Kong media groups openly critical of the Chinese regime and provided extensive coverage of last year’s pro-democracy protests.

Lai has since been arrested on two occasions for criminal intimidation and organising and participating in unauthorised demonstrations.

In addition, two websites publicising the personal information of Apple Daily journalists with malicious intent that were previously blocked for doxing, made a brief reappearance online in early August.

The National Security Law allows the Chinese regime to directly intervene in the special administrative region of Hong Kong so as to suppress, with the appearance of legality, anything it deems to be “terrorism”, “secession”, “subversion” or “collusion with foreign forces”.

The vast majority of the 115 journalists currently detained in China are imprisoned under allegations of a similar nature.

Hong Kong, once a bastion of press freedom, has fallen from 18th place in 2002 to 80th place in the 2020 RSF World Press Freedom Index.

The People’s Republic of China, for its part, stagnates in 177th place out of 180 countries.

The Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch media freedom project collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.

Filipinos and the people of Hong Kong are both in need of prayers over recently-passed security laws that threaten to undermine their basic freedoms and human rights, says the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

The bishops’ call came after they recently received a letter from Yangon Archbishop Charles Cardinal Maung Bo, president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, making an “ardent request for prayers” for the Hong Kong people following the passage of the new National Security Act.

In a pastoral letter signed on July 16 by its acting president, Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, the CBCP said that after assuring the Yangon Archbishop they would join him in prayers for Hong Kong, they also asked him to pray for the Philippines “and explained why we are as seriously in need of prayers as the people of Hong Kong”.

READ MORE: Stars and supporters protest against ABS-CBD shutdown in democracy rally

“Like them, we are also alarmed about the recent signing into law of the Anti-Terror Act of 2020,” the CBCP said.

Bishop David, a vocal critic of the Duterte administration, is temporarily heading the CBCP while its president, Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles, is recovering from a stroke.

Bishop David’s statement is among the most stinging from the CBCP since Valles’ predecessor, Archbishop Socrates Villegas, stepped down in November 2017.

Fast-tracked anti-terror law
In its statement, the CBCP said it remains in “disbelief” over the manner of how the anti-terror law was passed under the Duterte administration – especially by how it was fast-tracked in Congress while Filipinos were grappling with the coronavirus pandemic and how lawmakers ignored the people’s protests against it.

“The dissenting voices were strong but they remained unheeded,” the CBCP said, adding that “the political pressure from above seemed to weigh more heavily on our legislators than the voices from below”.

The Filipino bishops noted how the people in government and their supporters have “dismissed” all the fears raised over the new law as “unfounded”.

“The assurance that they give sounds strangely parallel to that which the Chinese government gave to the people of Hong Kong: ‘Activism is not terrorism. You have no reason to be afraid if you are not terrorists.’

“We know full well that it is one thing to be actually involved in a crime and another thing to be merely suspected or accused of committing a crime,” the CBCP said.

At the very least, the CBCP said, several petitions have been filed with the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the Anti-Terrorism Law.

“Will the highest level of our judiciary assert its independence, or will they, too, succumb to political pressure?” they said.

Semblance of democracy
In their pastoral letter, the CBCP warned that the return of “warrantless detentions” through the anti-terror law was reminiscent of how the country gradually lost its democracy in 1972.

“While a semblance of democracy is still in place and our democratic institutions somehow continue to function, we are already like the proverbial frog swimming in a pot of slowly boiling water,” the CBCP said.

Fortunately, the bishops noted, there remain in the present government “people of  goodwill whose hearts are in the right places, and who remain objective and independent-minded.”

The CBCP hoped these government officials will not allow themselves to be intimidated or succumb to political pressure.

“They are an important element to the strengthening of our government institutions, and are an essential key to a stable and functional democratic system,” the bishops said.

The CBCP ended the pastoral letter with a prayer, part of which said:

“May the crisis brought about by the pandemic bring about conversion and a change of heart in all of us. May it teach us to rise above personal and political loyalties and make us redirect all our efforts towards the common good.”

Stars and supporters protest over ABS-CBN shutdown
Meanwhile, enraged supporters and employees of shuttered media network ABS-CBN – including its biggest stars – took to the streets on Saturday, just over a week after the House of Representatives rejected its franchise renewal application, and days after the company announced a major retrenchment affecting more than 11,000 workers.

They held a noise barrage and a motorcade that passed through several cities before ending up at the ABS-CBN compound in Quezon City.

Actress and activist Angel Locsin was among the protesters. She was joined by her fiance, Neil Arce.

Actress Angel Locsin calls on fellow celebrities to speak up, not to be afraid. Here’s an excerpt of her speech today. | via @beacupin pic.twitter.com/TjZaK1pjVc

— Rappler (@rapplerdotcom) July 18, 2020

Hong Kong protesters in New Zealand are worried they could be arrested if they return home because they have attended political demonstrations here.

Beijing’s new national security law, passed on Tuesday, criminalises secession, subversion and collusion with foreign forces, but will also effectively shut down protest action and freedom of speech.

Penalties under the law include life in prison.

READ MORE: Hundreds arrested in Hong Kong over China security law protests

Within a day of its passing, hundreds have been arrested in Hong Kong, including a man carrying a flag that said “Hong Kong Independence”.

There are fears the laws could be applied more broadly, due to article 38, which says people can be charged in or outside of Hong Kong, even if they are not permanent residents.

“It seems like to them, no matter where you are, no matter what your nationality is … if you ever step to Hong Kong, they can just arrest you,” an Auckland woman, who asked not to be named because she feared reprisals from Beijing, said.

She said despite her fears, she would continue to attend pro-independence rallies in Auckland.

Legal specialists say the national security law is so broadly worded it could be used to charge Hong Kong dissidents living overseas.

‘Stay out of Hong Kong’
George Washington University law professor Donald Clarke wrote in his blog: “If you’ve ever said anything that might offend the PRC or Hong Kong authorities, stay out of Hong Kong.”

Canada has warned its citizens in Hong Kong or travelling there they risk arbitrary detention and possible extradition to mainland China.

Another member of Auckland’s Hong Kong community said he was worried because he and others who had attended pro-independence protests have been filmed by Chinese diplomats in New Zealand.

“I wish there were more safeguards in terms of the government or the police taking more of an active interest in the threatening behaviour from foreign entities,” he said.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters is concerned the legislation was passed without proper consultation, and he said the government would be studying it and its rollout closely.

“This is a critical moment for fundamental human rights and freedoms protected in Hong Kong for generations,” he said.

Auckland University Asian studies professor Manying Ip said it was too early to tell how the law would be applied, but she said it was unlikely to damage the New Zealand-Hong Kong relationship.

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.

This story is an edited version of a post published by the author on Facebook on Friday, May 22, reflecting on the possible consequences of the end of “One Country, two Systems” – a principle written into the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984 to safeguard Hong Kong’s political autonomy-following Beijing’s proposal of a new draft law.

May 22 – last Friday, Hong Kong. It’s a really bad day. And we have been having lots of bad days in Hong Kong lately. Bad months. Bad everything.

We’ve been living with the coronavirus since January. In November last year, the police attacked my university campus. And it’s been almost a full year since we came out to protest against the extradition bill.

But today Beijing imposed the “national security” law in Hong Kong. This law will give them broad powers to go after anyone they don’t like. Anyone who criticises them. Anyone who disagrees with them or disobeys them. Or also, anyone who hurts their feelings.

READ MORE: HK police fire tear gas at rally against proposed security law

Officially, the list of new offences will be “secession, subversion of state power, terrorism and foreign interference.” They say new categories might be added in the future.

I did not sleep well last night. It felt like I was waking up into a nightmare this morning.

Almost everyone I have talked to is speechless.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“I can’t even…”Or just simply “….”.

Fighting for our freedom
We have been fighting for our freedom and autonomy. We have been fighting for our right to elect the people who govern us.

The government that is grabbing power in Hong Kong now is a government that censors Peppa Pig and Winnie the Pooh. It is a party that routinely arrests feminists, lawyers, intellectuals and keeps ethnic minorities in concentration camps.

This is what we are fighting against. It is why we are deflated, why we are in despair in the wake of the recent news. We are all very tired.

But let’s be clear: Beijing knows that they are paying a high price – the full price – for this. And we here in Hong Kong have made them pay it.

I’m pretty sure even Beijing would have preferred not to exercise this nuclear option. They would have preferred to let the pro-Beijing party and the rigged Legislative Council in Hong Kong do the dirty work. But we made Beijing pay the full price.

Hannah Arendt teaches us that power is to act in concert. But Beijing is acting solo now.

This is not an example of Beijing being powerful – it is Beijing being forceful. It is not political power. It is political violence.

We did our part
I’m not saying this is a win, or that this is something to celebrate. But we did our part. We made them work really hard for it. Everyone in Hong Kong is watching.

The Hang Seng stock market index dropped a thousand points this morning already. Taiwan is watching. The United States is watching. Beijing is on notice, in front of the entire world.

So what now? What can we in Hong Kong do? What can anyone do?

I tell myself this is the moment where I need to take care of myself and take care of those around me. Because we need to take this hit, get up, and live to fight another day.

To quote Rocky’s famous cliché:

“[Life] ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.”

What Beijing does not want you to do is to get up. To keep fighting. To have hope. Though why would anyone in their right mind in Hong Kong have hope right now?

Here’s Rebecca Solnit’s take:

“[Hope] it is not the belief that everything was, is, or will be fine. . . . The hope I’m interested in is about broad perspectives with specific possibilities, ones that invite or demand that we act.”

Act to make a beginning
So what does it mean to act? According to Arendt, to act is to make a beginning. It is to do something surprising and unexpected and that will then have a life of its own because it will have inspired others, because others will follow, because we act in concert.

Maybe it’s time to remind ourselves that Hong Kong has been really good at protesting, at acting, at being creative and surprising.

We surprised the government when half a million of us came out to stop the original national security bill in 2003.

Last summer, we surprised the world with a one million-person march. And then we surprised the world again, this time with a cool two million-strong march. We got the extradition bill killed.

In one of the most capitalist cities of the world, we surprised ourselves by forming labour unions to get ourselves organised and protect ourselves against the government.

Doctors, nurses surprised government
This paid off when, earlier this year, doctors and nurses surprised the government by going on strike to force them to close the borders to protect us against the coronavirus.

We let hundreds of Lennon walls blossom and bloom, in Hong Kong and around the world. We started the yellow economic circle to continue to innovate on how we protest.

And we swept the district council elections in November 2019.

We refuse to be domesticated. Freedom is never free. But we earn our souls.

Please practice self-care. We have hope because we act. We take the hit, we get up and we live to fight another day.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Hong Kong authorities to drop all charges against Jimmy Lai, founder and chair of Next Digital, following his arrest yesterday alongside 13 other pro-democracy advocates on suspicion of participating in an “illegal” assembly.

Lai’s media properties, including the Apple Daily, have actively and sympathetically covered the 2019 pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong.

“The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the arrest of 14 prominent pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong, including Apple Daily media founder Jimmy Lai,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia programme coordinator, in Washington, DC, in a statement.

READ MORE: Hong Kong activists arrested over last year’s mass arrests

“Hong Kong authorities should end their repeated harassment of Jimmy Lai and drop all charges against him.”

Police also arrested former lawmaker and activist Martin Lee and 12 other pro-democracy advocates on suspicion of participating in the illegal assemblies on August 18 and October 20, 2019, according to news reports.

Hong Kong Police Force’s public relations branch did not immediately respond to CPJ’s email for comment.

As China celebrated the 70th anniversary of the birth of its Communist Party on October 1 with an extravagant military parade, down south in Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters continued their struggle to have all of their five demands heard. This was met with brute force by Hong Kong’s “raptor” riot police, resulting in serious injuries to journalists and protesters.

Veby Indah, a 39-year-old Indonesian journalist, permanently lost the sight in one of her eyes last Sunday while filming. Police shot a rubber bullet into a group she was standing beside while live streaming.

Other local and foreign journalists have made complaints of being physically harassed by the police, something which the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) has strongly condemned.

For the first time since the protests began four months ago, two protesters have been shot with live ammunition in recent days and more than 1400 people have been arrested since June. The first protester to be struck was an 18-year-old male protester who was shot in the chest by a riot police officer at close range, narrowly missing his heart on October 1. He is in a stable condition but has been charged with one count of rioting and two counts of assaulting a police officer.

The second protester was a teenage boy aged just 14, who was shot by a plainclothes police officer on the evening of October 4. In a night of continued mayhem, Chinese banks and MTR stations were firebombed, which prompted metro lines to be shut down and plunged the city into further chaos.

Recently, I spoke to a well-spoken young 20-something protester named *Dickson attending an anti-police brutality protest at Prince Edward station in Mong Kok.

“A lot of the protests are banned, which is a big problem because protesting is a basic right that Hong Kongers have or used to have. The way that the Hong Kong government and Beijing is handling this isn’t any different to how they have handled things for the last 70 years. In previous times, most protests fail and after awhile the movement dies off and then things get worse. It’s one country going against a special administrative region, we don’t have much we can do as citizens. At the same time, its seems that the protest movement has this time caught a lot more attention internationally,” said Dickson.

Sheer desperation
At the same protest a middle-aged lady named *Mary approached me with a voice of sheer desperation, “We are very afraid of the Hong Kong police and the CCP are hiring secret police from mainland China and they want to arrest our Hong Kong people. We want to see the CCTV footage from this [Prince Edward] metro station to find out what really happened on August 31,” referring to a prior incident, when police were accused of seriously assaulting protesters and allegedly covering up the evidence.

Earlier that day, I had bumped into a nurse named *Ally who was attending a weekend protest at The British Consulate-General building. After exchanging contact details, she later emailed me thanking us for covering the story, something that multiple Hong Kong citizens have done during our time in Hong Kong.

“I’m a registered nurse working in the department of surgery in one of the hospitals in Hong Kong. Amnesty International reported that the Hong Kong police assaulted a protestor after they were arrested. This is true. One protester was admitted to my ward after he was arrested, his CT report showed a splenic laceration and a fractured nasal bone. We found multiple abrasions over his face and body, there was a lot of bruising which is consistent with being beaten by baton.

“These were noted to be seen all over his body, the laceration on his leg needed to have sutures. I couldn’t believe that the patient got such an injury before he was arrested? As healthcare professionals, all of us felt very shocked and angry after we approached the patient. According to the patient, he said the police took him to the toilet and used their fist to attack his abdomen. They also used some hard object to beat his back and beamed a laser directly into his eyes. I can’t believe they are the police and not triads,” she wrote, along with a screenshot from a text message conversation with one of the doctors on duty at the time.

This escalation of events comes as Chief Executive Carrie Lam adopted the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to introduce a ban on protesters wearing masks, which came into effect on October 5, further pouring more fuel onto the protester’s fire. The repressive law was enacted in the 1920s by the then British colonial power and it was last used in 1967 to quell a communist riot that spilled into Hong Kong from the mainland during the Cultural Revolution.

Communists organised demonstrations targeting police and planted bombs in the streets and causing a period of turmoil. The Emergency Regulations Ordinance can give the government tremendous power to seize assets and search and arrest anyone they chose. It was not difficult for Lam to put this in place due to the fact she has a majority of seats in the Legislative Council.

Growing fears
On top of that, there are still growing fears among some citizens that the PLA could be readying themselves to take matters into their own hands. Earlier in the week, Reuters released an investigative report estimating that (according to diplomats), there might be as many as 12,000 troops already on the ground in Hong Kong.

Shortly after the mask-ban was announced we spoke with Emily Lau, a former member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council.

“We are at a very dangerous stage now. The pro-Beijing political parties and business people supporting Carrie Lam are very ignorant and unwise to push Hong Kong to the brink. This law about banning face masks is so provocative and I think it is going to be very useless. The whole procedure is wrong. They did not do any consultation. They used the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to give them the power to enact legislation without going through the Legislative Council properly,” Lau told me.

I asked Lau what we can expect to see from the protesters in response to this new law.

“Many protesters have taken part in illegal assemblies anyway and they were not afraid, so they are not going to be afraid of this law. They will have to build another ten prisons, it’s laughable.

I think many groups will be up in arms, even doctors because they wear the masks to protect themselves. The people are not going to take it lying down and many young people think they don’t have any future anyway and they will go and die, which is very sad. They are very emotional and so the thing to do is to help them to calm down not aggravate the situation. This can not go on and nor should it be allowed to go on. Otherwise you will see Hong Kong as once a safe, vibrant and free city suddenly decline, and also if that’s the case, we will no longer be a very good international business and financial center.”

Election climate
Next Month is the district council election and the DAB (pro-Beijing party) has already suggested it should be postponed (perhaps indefinitely) until the climate calms down.

“They can have an election in Afghanistan, so why can’t they have one here? But of course they are very afraid they will lose and lose very badly. That means not only will they lose their seats in the the district council, which have no power, but our system is such that the district councilors elect 117 members of the chief executive election committee and the way this election is carried out is that the overall winner takes all. So whoever gets a majority in the district council will get all the 117 seats in the chief executive election committee. So if they do very poorly they are going to hand over 117 seats to the pro-democracy camp. But first let’s see what happens in the coming days with this mask ban…”

As four more journalists were assaulted in the Hong Kong area last Sunday, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on the authorities to put an end to the violence against the press.

In the past two months, journalists covering the anti-extradition bill protests were increasingly the victim of intimidation and physical abuse by the police as well as pro-Beijing mobs (see the events in chronological order below).

“Violence against journalists has now become systematic and clearly aims to discourage them from covering the protests,” said Cédric Alviani, head of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) East Asia bureau.

READ MORE: Hong Kong protests disrupt airport for second day

He urged the Hong Kong authorities to “terminate the violence against the press and launch an independent investigation into the past acts of brutality”.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong (FCCHK) yesterday wrote a letter to Hong Kong Commissioner of Police, Stephen Lo Wai Chung, expressing concern over the latest acts of violence.

Since early June, Hong Kong has seen massive demonstrations against a bill that would allow authorities to extradite residents or visitors, including journalists and their sources, to China.

Two weeks ago, RSF wrote to Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, detailing five proposals to restore full press freedom.

In the RSF World Press Freedom Index, China’s Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong has plummeted from 18th in 2002 to 73rd this year. China itself is ranked 177th out of 180.

Attacks against journalists in the past two months:

• 11 August 2019: Two journalists from Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) and daily newspaper Ming Pao were physically attacked by a group of pro-Beijing mobs in the North Point area, while a Stand News reporter was verbally assaulted and threatened.
• 5 August 2019: In the Sham Shui Po area, a student journalist fainted after being hit by a tear gas canister shot by the police. In the Wong Tai Sin area, a journalist from Sing Tao Daily was tear gassed in his face. A group of mobsters holding clubs attacked a photographer from online media HK01 in the Tsuen Wan area.
• 21 July 2019: Two journalists working for Stand News and Now TV are among the 45 people seriously injured in a large-scale attack perpetrated at the Yuen Long subway station by a mafia group dressed in white.
• 7 July 2019: In the Mongkok area, the police verbally and physically assaulted three journalists from Apple Daily, HK01, and Metro Radio.
• 1 July 2019: An independent broadcaster, Citizens’ Radio, was attacked and their equipment damaged in front of the staff by unidentified people carrying weapons.
• 30 June 2019: Multiple journalists from South China Morning Post (SCMP), Stand News and Next Magazine were insulted and kicked during a rally in support of the police in the Admiralty area.
• 12 June 2019: More than 12 incidents of assault against journalists were recorded in the Admiralty area, including 10 cases of police officers firing tear gas at close range.

• The Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch project works in collaboration with RSF

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

Authorities in Hong Kong should swiftly investigate the vandalism of the Citizens’ Radio office and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Yesterday, at about 2:45 a.m., four men wearing masks forced their way into the offices of Citizens’ Radio and smashed its door, windows, and broadcasting equipment, according to news reports and Tsang Kin Shing, the station’s founder, who spoke to CPJ via phone.

The men broke broadcasting equipment that Tsang planned to use to cover yesterday’s protests, he told CPJ.

READ MORE: Hong Kong demonstrators storm lawmakers building

Citizens’ Radio was still able to cover the protests, as seen in video it posted to Facebook.

Hong Kong has faced protests since May, chiefly against a proposed amendment to its extradition law that would allow Hong Kong to send fugitive suspects to places where it lacked extradition agreements, including mainland China, according to news reports.

In May, CPJ called on Hong Kong authorities to revise or drop the bill.

“Hong Kong authorities must take swift action to apprehend those responsible for vandalising Citizens’ Radio,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia programme coordinator, in Washington, DC.

“Authorities need to demonstrate that the use of violence to halt news coverage has no place in Hong Kong.”

Tsang told CPJ that he witnessed the men enter the station brandishing hammers and a baseball bat, vandalise the office, and leave, and said that the entire incident lasted about two minutes.

He estimated the damage at between HK$20,000 to $30,000 (US$2560 to US$3845), and told CPJ that he filed a report with the local police.

Citizens’ Radio is a nonprofit broadcaster affiliated with the League of Social Democrats, a pro-democracy political party in Hong Kong, which broadcasts without a permit since its license application has been pending since 2005, according to news reports.

Tsang and other employees of the broadcaster have been prosecuted and fined for broadcasting illegally, and the station has been shut down by authorities multiple times since 2005, according to media reports.

The Hong Kong Police Force did not answer CPJ’s phone call requesting comment.

By David Robie in Paris

When Reporters Without Borders chief Christophe Deloire introduced the Paris-based global media watchdog’s Asia-Pacific press freedom defenders to his overview last week, it was grim listening.

First up in RSF’s catalogue of crimes and threats against the global media was Czech President Miloš Zeman’s macabre press conference stunt late last year.

However, Zeman’s sick joke angered the media when he brandished a dummy Kalashnikov AK47 with the words “for journalists” carved into the wood stock at the October press   conference in Prague and with a bottle of alcohol attached instead of an ammunition clip.

Zeman has never been cosy with journalists but this gun stunt and a recent threat about “liquidating” journalists (another joke?) rank him alongside US President Donald Trump and the Philippines leader, Rodrigo Duterte, for their alleged hate speech against the media.

Deloire cited the Zeman incident to highlight global and Asia-Pacific political threats against the media. He pointed out that the threat came just a week after leading Maltese investigative journalist – widely dubbed as the “one-woman Wikileaks” – was killed in a car bomb blast.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated outside her home in Bidnija on 16 October 2017 after exposing Maltese links in the Panama Papers and her relentless corruption inquiries implicated her country’s prime minister and other key politicians.

Although arrests have been made and three men face trial for her killing, RSF recently published a statement calling for “full justice’” – including prosecution of those behind the murder.

Harshly critical
While noting the positive response by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to the journalists’ safety initiative by RSF and other media freedom bodies, Deloire was harshly critical of many political leaders, including Philippines President Duterte, over their attitude towards crimes with impunity against journalists.

In the Philippines, for example, there is still no justice for the 32 journalists brutally slain – along with 26 other victims – on 23 November 2009 by a local warlord’s militia in to so-called Ampatuan massacre, an unsuccessful bid to retain political power for their boss in national elections due the following year.

Rappler published a report last year updating the painfully slow progress in the investigations and concluded that “eight years and three presidential administrations later, no convictions have been made”.

Ironically, Rappler itself – hated by President Dutertre – has also been the subject of an RSF campaign in an effort to block the administration’s cynical and ruthless attempt to close down the most dynamic and successful online publication in the Philippines (133rd in the RSF World Media Freedom Index – a drop of six places).

Founded by ex-CNN investigative journalist Maria Ressa, Rappler has continued to challenge the government, described by RSF last year as the “most dangerous” country for journalists in Asia.

Duterte’s continuous attacks against the media were primarily responsible for the downward trend for the Philippines in the latest RSF Index, with RSF saying: “The dynamism of the media has also been checked by athe emergence of a leader who wants to show he is all powerful.”

The media watchdog also stressed that the Duterte administration had “developed several methods for pressuring and silencing journalists who criticise his notorious war on drugs”.

Test case
The revocation of Rappler’s licence by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is regarded as a test case for media freedom in the Philippines.

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines advocate Jhoanna Ballaran says the situation is very worrying.

The RSF consultation with some of its Asia-Pacific researchers and advocates in the field has followed a similar successful one in South America. It is believed that this is the first time the watchdog has hosted such an Asia Pacific-wide event.

Twenty three correspondents from 17 countries or territories — Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Hongkong, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Tibet — took part in the consultation plus a team of Paris-based RSF advocates.

Asia Pacific head Daniel Bastard says the consultation is part of a new strategy making better use of the correspondents’ network to make the impact of advocacy work faster and even more effectively than in the past.

The Pacific delegation – Associate Professor Joseph Fernandez, a journalist and media law academic who is head of journalism at Curtin University of Australia (19th on the RSF Index), AUT Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie of New Zealand (8th) and former PNG Post-Courier chief executive and media consultant Bob Howarth of Papua New Guinea (53rd) – made lively interventions even though most media freedom issues “pale into insignificance” compared with many countries in the region where journalists are regularly killed or persecuted.

Nauru’s controversial ban on the ABC from covering the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) this September was soundly condemned and the draconian 2010 Media Industry Development Decree in Fiji (57th) and efforts by Pacific governments to introduce the repressive “China model” to curb the independence of Facebook and other social media were also strongly criticised. (Nauru is unranked and China is 176th, four places above the worst country – North Korea at 180th).

Media highlights
Highlights of the three-day consultation included a visit to the multimedia Agence France-Presse, one of the world’s “big two” news agencies, and workshops on online security and sources protection and gender issues.

No sooner had the consultation ended when RSF was on the ball with another protest over two detained local journalists in Myanmar working for Reuters news agency.

An RSF statement condemned Monday’s decision by a Yangon judge to go ahead with the trial of the journalists on a trumped up charge of possessing secrets and again demanded their immediate release.

Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, have already been detained for more than 200 days with months of preliminary hearings.

They now face a possible 14-year prison sentence for investigating an army massacre of Rohingya civilians in Inn Din, a village near the Bangladeshi border in Rakhine state, in September 2017.

RSF secretary-general Deloire says: “The refusal to dismiss the case against the journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo is indicative of a judicial system that follows orders and a failed transition to democracy in Myanmar.”

The chances of seeing an independent press emerge in Myanmar have now “declined significantly”.

The Pacific Media Centre’s David Robie was in Paris for the Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific consultation. Dr Robie is also convenor of PMC’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project.

• RSF’s World Press Freedom Index 2018
• Who murdered Malta’s most famous journalist?
• ABC ban: News Corp rejects media boycott of Nauru forum

Czech President Miloš Zeman’s “joke” threat against journalists. Video: The Young Turks

The vibrant city of Hong Kong, once regarded as a haven for free speech, is experiencing a steady erosion of press freedom.

The former British colony was promised a high degree of economic and social autonomy upon its handover to China in 1997 — including freedom of the press — with the Hong Kong special administrative region operating under a “one country, two systems” principle. However, despite initially enjoying one of the most free media climates in the region, the situation appears to have deteriorated in recent years.

In the annual world press freedom index compiled by the Paris-based NGO Reporters Without Borders — or Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) — Hong Kong has slumped in the rankings from 18th in 2002 to 69th in 2016 (China sits at number 176 of 180 countries).

Further cause for concern can be found in the latest survey by the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), which reports that both journalists and the general public believe that press freedom in Hong Kong has worsened for second year in a row.

Self-censorship has been stressed as one of the major issues facing the media; when the HKJA asked journalists to evaluate the level of self-censorship on a scale of 1 to 10, their average rating was 7.

Benjamin Ismaïl, head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk, found Hong Kong’s media freedom situation troubling enough to warrant an in-depth report. Aiming to draw attention to self-censorship and editorial interference issues, the report calls on the special administrative region’s authorities to “reverse their insidious policies towards the media as a matter of urgency”.

Despite noting that there is no incontrovertible evidence of Beijing’s hand in undermining Hong Kong’s press freedom, the report raises questions about several distressing developments.

Triad-style attack
Chief among these is a growing number of physical attacks on journalists, the most shocking of which occurred in February 2014 when Kevin Lau was brutally stabbed in a triad-style attack. During his two-year stint as editor-in-chief of Ming Pao, a muckraking Chinese-language daily, the newspaper contributed investigative work to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ (ICIJ) expose on the offshore holdings of China’s elites, which was widely speculated on to be the motivation behind the attack.

“The unfortunate truth is that for many physical attacks and other ‘legal’ violations of press freedom, it has been impossible to prove the intention of the perpetrators, and in the case of this attack, to identify the individuals who gave the order,” says Ismaïl.

Lau’s two assailants were jailed for 19 years in August 2015, confessing that they had been offered HK$100,000 each to “teach Lau a lesson”, but refusing to reveal who hired them. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club quoted Lau as saying that only when the perpetrator behind his attack is found “will the shadow cast on journalists by this violent attack be lifted.”

“We’ve seen ways that people can be pressured,” says veteran journalist Francis Moriarty.

“Kevin Lau is an example: pushed out of his job and physically attacked in the streets to within an inch of his life. His successor was marched out of the office at midnight and told don’t come back … You can see the results, even if you can’t always see the hand at work.”

Ming Pao has come to the fore of Hong Kong’s press freedom debate once again as their latest editor-in-chief, Keung Kwok-yuen, was suddenly fired last month after running a front-page story on local politicians and businessmen named in the Panama Papers. Following Keung’s dismissal, Ming Pao columnists submitted blank columns in protest, but to no avail.

Another disconcerting example of Beijing’s invisible hand at work, according to the RSF report, is the acquisition of the South China Morning Post (SCMP) — Hong Kong’s leading English-language newspaper — by billionaire Jack Ma, founder and chairman of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Company executives have said that they aim to counter the “negative” perception of China in the Western media. This move raised such fears of mainland interference that Ma felt it necessary to defend the decision in a recent SCMP interview.

‘Legal’ violations
As well as physical attacks and editorial interference, the RSF report details “legal” press freedom violations, such as the withdrawal of advertising to asphyxiate a publication and the demoting of critical journalists, as major causes behind growing self-censorship. Ismaïl says that for some journalists, “making no compromise will mean losing their job”.

Hong Kong journalist and press freedom advocate Mak Yin-ting fears that self-censorship may become “endemic” in Hong Kong, irreparably weakening the watchdog role of the Fourth Estate. “According to the [HKJA] surveys, the most self-censored issues are those sensitive to the central government in Beijing,” says Mak, who served as the HKJA chairperson for several years.

Stories regarding the independence of Tibet, Taiwan and Xinjian are considered to be the most sensitive to Beijing, and therefore most likely to go unpublished. Mak also points to human rights suppressions in China and Hong Kong’s vocal localist movement as further examples of issues less covered by Hong Kong media.

“This makes it impossible to play its watchdog role, it’s as simple as that,” says Ismaïl. “This happens the moment a journalist starts to balance the interest of the public with the interest of the state.” He contends that the “poor” local coverage of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s secret A$7 million payout is one such example.

The HKJA’s current chairperson, Sham Yee-lan, is renewing calls for the government to introduce a Freedom to Information Act, which Mak says is something journalists have been demanding for decades. Hong Kong’s existing information laws are “insufficient” for journalists to report effectively, according to the HKJA.

Mak “condemns” Leung for failing to keep his promise on this legislation once he became Chief Executive, as he signed a freedom of press charter in 2012 stating his commitment to implementing the act.

Leung made overtures towards defending press freedom at the annual Hong Kong News Awards last month, saying, “the SAR government will continue to maintain freedom of speech in Hong Kong … because it is a necessary condition for Hong Kong as an international city. Freedom of the press is essential to maintain Hong Kong’s competitiveness and free society. In other words, protecting freedom of the press means protecting Hong Kong’s way of life.”

Harshly criticised
This speech was harshly criticised by the Hong Kong Free Press. “Nowhere in his administration do we see these inspirational words put into action. In fact, Leung has presided over a troubling erosion of the very core value to which he was so keen to give lip service,” wrote Kent Ewing.

“One of the things for which many people in Hong Kong fault CY Leung is that he takes the mainland’s side in issues,” says Moriarty. “He couldn’t even bring himself to root for the Hong Kong soccer team when it played against China.” Leung’s growing unpopularity is on display on his Facebook page, where the public have taken to express their anger.

Polarising public dissatisfaction and accusations of Leung’s mainland-bias have been renewed over his administration’s inactive response to the missing booksellers, one of the most sensational freedom of speech cases in recent years. Five men with links to a Hong Kong bookstore — Causeway Bay Books, known for publishing scandalous material critical of China’s senior party officials — disappeared without trace over the course of several months late last year, only to resurface sporadically on Chinese state television giving what appear to be forced confessions.

The ongoing saga has dominated Hong Kong media for months and is threatening to become an international incident now that Angela Gui, daughter of one of the missing men, has gone public with an appeal for help in the United States. She has accused China of carrying out “illegal operations” beyond its borders, and urged the international community to respond.

“Almost nothing ever gets solved in China quietly,” says Moriarty. “Every case I’ve ever seen when something was resolved and somebody ultimately was freed was because there was a campaign, there were people in the family that wouldn’t give up, the public got behind them and wouldn’t give up — keeping quiet doesn’t help people.”

Timothy Hamlett is another veteran Hong Kong journalist critical of Leung’s pro-Beijing administration. “Hong Kong does not have a state of democracy,” he says. “Leung’s predecessors were quite successful in obscuring this fact by an ostentatious display of concern for public opinion. Leung doesn’t care what anyone thinks about him and makes this obvious. He is regarded as a shameless puppet.”

Hamlett says that the silence of Leung’s administration on the disappeared booksellers — one of whom, Lee Bo, is believed to have been illegally abducted from Hong Kong — is viewed as complicitous by many. “It is clear that the Chinese government is trying by a variety of ways to muzzle the Hong Kong media, and to a considerable extent it has succeeded,” he says.

Worrisome figures
Considering the worrisome figures presented by the HKJA and RSF, Hamlett says they do not present an accurate reflection of the media landscape, as “the reality is worse… Journalists and editors try to hide in areas like business where accuracy is still valued and ‘sensitive’ topics do not come up, or they consider alternative careers.”

While Hamlett bemoans the decline of Hong Kong’s traditional media, he says several new media outlets are picking up the watchdog baton, such as the newly-established Hong Kong Free Press, for which he is a contributor, and the pro-democracy Next Media websites — whose outspoken founder, Jimmy Lai, has often found himself a target.

Tim Summers, an adjunct assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, offers a “slightly counter-consensus view” on the issue, arguing that it is more complicated than “a critical one-dimensional decline in media freedom.”

“One of the things mixed into this debate is the changing nature of the media here,” he says, “and I think that makes it difficult to evaluate.” According to Summers, most people in Hong Kong now get their news and information from a wider range of sources, including social media and online chat groups, where “freedom of expression and information transfer are healthy.”

Summers suggests the extensive local coverage of the 2014 Umbrella movement as a positive example, during which all media outlets were live streaming the protests as they unfolded without restrictions, including the oft-criticised SCMP. “I’m not saying there are no issues around … there is perhaps less variety and diversity of outspoken views across the traditional media in Hong Kong, but I would argue that that is more than compensated by the emergence of new media.”

This more measured take on the state of Hong Kong’s press freedom is echoed by Dr Judith Clarke, a seasoned professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University’s journalism department. “There is certainly a lot of pressure to conform, but there are plenty of independent media getting the news out and leading the way on stories — scrutinising every move of the government, so that even pro-government media have to follow.”

She concedes, however, that the introduction of a Freedom to Information Act is unlikely under the current administration. “There are already some procedures in place, such as the Code on Access to Information, various complaints mechanisms and the Ombudsman’s office. These are not really adequate, but they do provide some level of access.”

Open access
Moriarty says that even these procedures are under threat, as the administration is attempting to make access more difficult for journalists. “Without open access to business records you wouldn’t have seen the same stories about the rich family members of the Chinese leaders — the Hong Kong records were extremely important in being able to confirm who was who and where the money was going.”

Ismaïl emphasises that regardless of whether the act happens or not, it should not be viewed as a solution to the threats that the Hong Kong media are facing. “Even with the Freedom to Information Act, which will [reduce] discrimination against independent online media like the Hong Kong Free Press, the media will continue to be pressured and encouraged to self-censor.” The Hong Kong government — perhaps sensing that new media could become the Fourth Estate’s new watchdog — does not allow online media access to press conferences and press releases.

In spite of his many concerns, Ismaïl is not yet ready to call the “one country, two systems” experiment a failure — at least as it relates to press freedom guarantees — and he promises RSF will continue to monitor the situation closely. “The Hong Kong media, both local and foreign, enjoy all sorts of freedoms that are refused to journalists operating in mainland China. And international press freedom organisations like ours can still go there and speak freely … But the moment RSF members are denied access to Hong Kong, we’ll be extremely worried.”

Dominic Pink compiled this report as part of the Pacific Media Centre’s Asia Pacific Journalism Studies course.

• Hong Kong bookseller: Chinese TV confession was ‘forced’

By Gayathry Venkiteswaran

Journalists have been killed in terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan in separate incidents that took place in January 2016, heightening concerns over the continued targeting of media personnel.

On January 20, seven staff members of the Afghan Tolo TV were killed following a Taliban suicide attack in Kabul on a minibus that was transporting the station’s journalists. Thirty others were also injured in the attack.

International organisations issued a message of solidarity with the Afghan media. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) tweeted this:

#Afghanistan: IFJ condemns killing of seven #media workers in suicide bombing https://t.co/fPsezkYFxE @abellanger49 pic.twitter.com/IZxOxjYDBP

— IFJ (@IFJGlobal) January 20, 2016

IFEX members including the Afghanistan Journalists Center, Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Press Institute (IPI) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which ranked Afghanistan 122 out of 180 in their 2015 press freedom index, also reported on the attacks.

Earlier, two journalists were killed in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, a spot where militants have a stronghold. According to the IFJ, journalist Mehboob Shah Afridi of Aaj TV was killed in a suicide bomb attack on the outskirts of Peshawar on 19 January, while on 16 January, unidentified gunmen shot dead journalist Muhammad Umar, who was a correspondent with a local newspaper.

These incidents were not isolated, as journalists have been targeted across the country; a week before the office of the ARY News was attacked by unidentified attackers who hurled a hand grenade at the Islamabad office and a similar attack took place in November 2015 at the Faisalbad office of Dunya News TV.

It was noted with irony that Pakistan authorities had on 13 January searched the home of New York Times reporter Salman Mahmood, reportedly for terrorists. Media freedom activist Asad Baig tweeted:

Another television media outlet attacked. Meanwhile rangers look for terrorists in the houses of journalists .. @salmanmasood #JournoSafe

— asad beyg (@asadbeyg) January 13, 2016

Dawn, one of Pakistan’s national newspapers, commented that little action has been taken by the state and media houses to protect journalists, leading to the routine killings.

Missing booksellers
Continuing in the spotlight in January was the disappearance of five people associated with a publishing company in Hong Kong, believed to be held in China. The first to go missing, in Thailand, was Gui Minhai, a writer and co-owner of publishing house Mighty Current, which runs the Causeway Bay Bookshop and produces books said to be critical of the Chinese Communist Party, on 17 October 2015.

Three others – Lui Bo, Cheung Ji-ping and Lam Wing-kei – went missing in Shenzhen, China, between 20 and 26 October. Then, in December, a major stockholder in the company, Lee Bo, was reported missing by his wife.

Reports say Lee Bo has since met with his wife, secretly, and Chinese authorities have, after more than two weeks, confirmed that they have detained Lee in mainland China.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association had earlier written seeking clarification on their whereabouts, and the International Publishers Association issued a statement to express their concern that the Chinese government was attempting to quash free speech in the former British colony.

A leaked letter identified 14 publishing houses and 21 publications in Hong Kong as targets to be ‘exterminated’:

UK report: Leaked Chinese Communist Party doco reveals Hong Kong plan to ‘exterminate’ banned books https://t.co/0wC6gCHhDW via @SCMP_News

— Niall Fraser (@MeOldChina64) January 25, 2016

The South China Morning Post is monitoring the issue and has created a special page to compile updates and maintain a timeline of the incidents.

Digital rights
Several individuals were convicted for online expression, specifically for postings on the social networking platform, Facebook, that were deemed in breach of national security or defamatory by the respective governments and courts.

In Thailand, a 46-year old ex-stockbroker was sentenced to six years in jail for two Facebook posts about the king that were cited as having breached the country’s controversial lèse majesté law, according to the Bangkok Post.

As of December 2015, prosecutions under the insult law topped 60 since a coup was launched in mid-2014, and the military regime has attempted to get the compliance of online companies Facebook and Youtube to ban any content said to be defamatory to the monarchy.

In Burma, activist Patrick Khum Jaa Lee was sentenced to six months in prison for posting on his Facebook page comments about the country’s army chief. Critics and his family say there is no digital evidence to prove the crime, and that the charge under the Telecommunications Law threatens freedom of expression.

On a more positive note for digital rights, Bytes for All in Pakistan has created a series of cartoons on the importance of encryption to protect one’s privacy online as well as to ensure individuals are able to express themselves freely. As they say, “We believe the best way to respond to the attempts to put curbs on encryption is for everyone to learn about it and actively use it.”

Members calling for action
The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance has come together with the Community and Public Sector Union to launch a campaign to restore adequate funds for Australia‘s national broadcaster – the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) – and to end government interference in the station’s editorial and programming. More details on the Hands Off Our ABC campaign are on MEAA’s website.

Key Regional Reports
Several groups painted a bleak picture for 2015 in terms of impunity in Asia, reflected in reports by the Pakistan Press Foundation and the Freedom Forum in Nepal. Other forms of attack against the media in Indonesia were recorded by Aliansi Jurnalis Independen, while the Thai Journalists Association reported that, in 2015, the atmosphere in Thailand was one of paranoia, and marked by control by the military regime. Amendments to the constitution in progress have worried activists and critics of the regime. Journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk, who was detained twice by the junta, tweeted on the targeting of students who challenge the regime.

South Pacific
In the South Pacific, Pacific Media Watch reports the IFJ released its report Strengthening Media in the Pacific – an insight into the media landscape and working conditions for media workers in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

The report was a culmination of research and media consultation in the Pacific’s media in 2014 and 2015 and highlights the challenges and success stories from the region as the media continued to rapidly develop and grow.

Gayathry Venkiteswaran based this compilation on IFEX member reports from Afghanistan Journalists Center , Aliansi Jurnalis Independen/Alliance of Independent Journalists , Bytes for All , Committee to Protect Journalists , Freedom Forum , Hong Kong Journalists Association , Human Rights Watch , International Federation of Journalists , International Press Institute , International Publishers Association , Pakistan Press Foundation , Reporters Without Borders , Southeast Asian Press Alliance , Thai Journalists Association