HKJA press freedom report is used as catalyst to degrade Hong Kong

Mark Pinkstone/Former Chief Information Officer of HK government

The argument about press freedom in Hong Kong continues with the latest press freedom report compiled by the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA). Its results are not surprising as the emotions of journalists are well known, even in their writings. They are a sensitive lot and very protective of their industry.

That is fair enough as it is, after all, their bread and butter. But their emotions spill over to the international stage and used to weaponize Hong Kong as it licks its wounds from the 2019-20 riots.

The HKJA report says the press rating has dropped to 25 points out of 100, its lowest since the survey started in 2013. The Index survey was conducted between March and April this year to evaluate the state of press freedom in 2022. The survey was composed of two parts, with responses collected from the public and journalists. The HKJA sent out 678 questionnaires to journalists, of which 249 responded. A second part of the survey involved the public and was conducted by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute and involved 1,026 residents.
Among respondents in the public sector, 49 per cent believed arresting and charging several senior members of the media with violating the National Security Law or with sedition was quite or very damaging to press freedom.

Among journalist respondents, 97 per cent believe charging Stand News editors with sedition was damaging to press freedom, of which 90 per cent believe it to be very damaging. Further, 96 per cent of journalists believe charging media tycoon Jimmy Lai under the National Security Law was quite or very damaging to press freedom.

The root cause of this discontent appears to centre around the National Security Law and the term “sedition.” Journalists fail to accept sedition and subversion as against the State, anywhere. They believe they have a right to report and promote sedition and subversion, including independence, without acknowledgement of the consequences.

This is something that the journalism training courses at our universities should pay close attention to.

Sedition’s history dates to the Elizabethan era around 1590 and is applicable in all Common Law states (UK, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, USA, etc.) and other parts of the world. Even the bible recognises sedition in Romans 13:1-2: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities…Therefore whoever resists the authorities… will incur judgment.”

Sedition refers to overt actions written or by speech which expresses discontent against the establishment with the aim to incite violence or hatred against it.

Therefore, the arrests of senior media personnel, including Jimmy Lai, on sedition charges should not be regarded as “damaging to press freedom,” but rather as criminal acts according to international laws.

But because many of those arrested are from the Fourth Estate, the media cries foul and call the arrests a clamp down on press freedom. They are wrong and their emotions cloud their judgement when answering the HKJA survey questionnaire.

However, the damage has been done and already the international media is playing up erosion of press freedom in Hong Kong. “Birds of a feather, flock together,” as the saying goes.

Despite what the media portrays, Hong Kong still enjoys a flourishing press. According to the online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, Hong Kong is the home to many of Asia's biggest English and Chinese language newspapers. The territory has one of the world's largest press industries and is a major centre for print journalism. It added that Apple Daily had one of the highest circulations before its closure in 2021. It had a feisty, tabloid style, concentrating on celebrity gossip and paparazzi photography, with sensationalist news reportage and a noted anti-government political position.

In Hong Kong, as at December 31, 2023, there were 90 daily newspapers and 376 periodicals (including numerous electronic newspapers), three domestic free television programme services, one domestic pay television programme service, nine non-domestic television programme services, one public service broadcaster, and two sound broadcasting licensees. The availability of the latest telecommunications technology attracted many international news agencies, newspapers with international readership and overseas broadcasting corporations to establish regional headquarters or representative offices in Hong Kong. International media including The Economist, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Nikkei, The Wall Street Journal, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters have a presence in Hong Kong. International broadcasters with operations in Hong Kong include the BBC, CNBC, CNN, CGTV, CAN, DW, Al Jazeera and NHK. The Overseas Public Relations Sub-division of the Government Information Services Department liaises closely with more than 60 foreign media organisations based in Hong Kong, handling press enquiries, disseminating news and arranging briefings and interviews. The local newspapers are published in Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Filipino and Nepalese to cater for the entire community.

Only Two of the publications, Apple Daily and Stand News, closed down due to their implications in the National Security Law and the subsequent arrest of their owners on subversion charges.

So to say that the media in Hong Kong is eroding, is a misplacement of fact. It is alive and thriving as demanded by the public. The media is free to question the governance of Hong Kong and to investigate and expose malpractices. However, it is not free to incite hatred against the administration.

Mark Pinkstone

** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **

Mark Pinkstone/Former Chief Information Officer of HK government

It was a nail-biting time to the end of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games as the world’s two greatest superpowers – China and the US – battled out who would top the ladder in the quest for gold medals. At the end of the day, the Americans equalled China with 40 gold medals.

However, the US secured a total of 126 medals among its near 600 Olympic team. China fielded only 388 contestants.

The rivalry between the two extended beyond the common bounds of politics and economics to now include sport.

And as it is with the previous two denominators, it was not a fair game. The US’s opening gambit to destabilize the Chinese team came with a planted story in the New York Times that a Chinese team of 23 swimmers had been tested positive in drug tests prior to the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. Eleven of those tested positive were competing in the Paris Games. But all those tested positive were cleared by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after accepting reports that the athletes concerned had unknowingly eaten contaminated meat.

Social and mainstream media, athletes and politicians were quick to pick up the hot piece of gossip and questioned WADA as to why it didn’t disqualify the athletes. But WADA, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Chinese anti-doping authority stuck to their guns that the trace contamination was not intentional.

However, the Chinese swimmers were undaunted by the controversary surrounding them and picked up 12 medals and another 8 for diving.

The nail biting started three days before the close when both China and the US were 33 golds each, with the US having the edge with a greater number of overall medals. Australia was third with 18 golds. China then moved forward securing another 5 golds to bring its tally to 39 while the US stood still at 33. Overnight the Americans bounced back securing another 4 golds to raise its tally to 38. On the eve of the finals the tallies were 39 for China and 38 for the US. China claimed one more and the cliff-hanger was women’s basketball match between France and the US. The US won the exciting game by one point, making it equal to China’s score.

One could only imagine the pep talks by the coaches in the Olympic Village on the night before the finals with both aiming to outdo the other. It’s all a matter of ‘face’.

As in any geopolitical rivalry it’s all about moving the goal post. Normally the Olympic winner is determined by the number of gold medals won. So even though China had the greater number of gold medals throughout the games, the US was declared the winner with the total number of medals won (126).

The size of the contingent also gives a national team the edge over its competitors by placing more athletes in an event, thus increasing a chance to gain one of the three medals.
With some 206 countries competing in the 2024 Olympics, the US had, by far, the largest number of 596 athletes vying for gold, silver and bronze medals. It was followed by the host country France with 573, Australia 460, Germany 427, Italy 403 and China 388.

Overall, the games were open and fair, save for some minor criticism by athletes about accommodation (hard cardboard beds) food (worms, which, incidentally, is a delicacy in Fujian city of Xiamen street stalls), and pollution in the River Seine.

Stars were born, among them Quan Hongchan the 17-year-old diving diva from Zhanjiang, Guangdong, who stole the show with her excitement gestures. She took home two gold medals for her performances. The most famed Chinese contestant was speed swimmer Pan Zhanle, the 20 year-old from Wenzhou, Zhejiang, who broke his own 100-meter freestyle world record and won two golds and one silver medal. And table tennis icon Sun Yingsha, 24, from Shijiazhuang, Hebei, whose selfie with mixed doubles runners-up, the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea was flashed across the world.

Despite the plot to destabilize the Chinese team and its diminished size compared with its rivals, the Chinese athletes rose to the fore to show the world that sport can overcome all obstacles and foster friendship among friend and foe in the true Olympic spirit.