In the 2022 World Press Freedom Index, the biggest drop this year was in Hong Kong
Press freedom in Hong Kong is dying fast
Reporters Without Borders, which has long focused on global press freedom issues, released its 2022 World Press Freedom Index, describing the trend of global press freedom over the past year as “a new era of divergence”. According to the latest index for 2022, the biggest faller was Hong Kong, which fell from 80th in 2021 to 148th in 2022, while China ranked 175th out of 180 countries, despite its continued use of legislation as a weapon to restrict its people and isolate them from the rest of the world.
Cedric Alviani, a representative of Reporters Without Borders’ East Asia office, told Deutsche Welle: “It is not surprising that press freedom in Hong Kong has deteriorated significantly. In fact, this is an unfortunate expectation. When the Hong Kong government passed the National Security law, it did not immediately translate it into measures against journalists. The first targets of the law were political opponents. Journalists were spared during the first year of the law. ” But journalists and anyone defending press freedom in Hong Kong became the main targets of the government’s crackdown in 2021-22, he said. Cedric Alviani noted: “We can say with certainty that since the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Act, the rule of law is no longer being fully applied in Hong Kong. Press freedom is no longer a reality in Hong Kong because the Hong Kong government proves it by attacking journalists or defenders of press freedom.”
Reporters Without Borders changed the way it calculates its index this year, so some countries changed their rankings from last year. However, Mr. Alviani emphasized that Hong Kong’s sharp fall was not due to a change in the way the index is calculated. “This is entirely due to the actions of the Hong Kong government,” he said. The Hong Kong government’s crackdown on the media industry has accelerated in an incredible way over the past year.” Last week, Reporters Without Borders published a report detailing the Hong Kong government’s assault on press freedom over the past two years. “For the first time in Hong Kong, more than 20 journalists and defenders of press freedom have been arrested, 13 of whom are still in custody awaiting trial, and two independent media outlets have been forced to close down as a result of the government crackdown,” the report said. To please the Chinese government, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet has targeted symbols of press freedom such as public broadcaster Radio Hong Kong (RTHK).”
China model diffusion
In its statement, Reporters Without Borders noted that China has continued to spread its information control model overseas over the past year, which in turn has affected media control in Hong Kong and other neighbouring countries in the region. Cedric Alviani says some seemingly democratic Asian countries, such as Thailand and Cambodia, are taking a more authoritarian approach to controlling the media because of Chinese influence. He told Deutsche Welle: “China supports them ideologically and technologically to strengthen their control over information. In addition, in some democratic countries, some politicians will use some of the rhetoric used by the Chinese government, saying that information control will improve the efficiency of the government and reduce the problems the government has to face.”
Reporters Without Borders protests in front of the Chinese Embassy in Berlin in 2021
When Hong Kong was handed over to China in 1997, Apple ran a big story on the day, with the headline: “Hong Kong has a Future.”
No other country has more journalists in prison than China. “More than 100 media workers are currently in prison in China for their work. Most of the charges are espionage, subversion or provoking trouble. The human rights group Reporters Without Borders describes conditions in China’s prisons as sometimes desperate. Anne Renzenbrink of the group says more than a dozen media workers are currently in prison and could die there if they are not released immediately.”
July 1, 1997 —— the headline on the front page of “Apple” was “The Beginning of an Era, Hong Kong Believes in Tomorrow” & the headline on A2 was “Hong Kong Returns to the Motherland <A Grand Event Forever in History”
1/4 century later —— the National Security Law was implemented, which dealt a serious blow to one country, two systems, and Apple entered history
On June 24, 2021, Apple Daily, the only free and democratic large media in Hong Kong, issued its last newspaper and officially played taps. Many communication scholars believe that this represents the last media supporting opposition voices in Hong Kong officially disappeared, and also indicates that the ecology of Hong Kong’s newspaper industry is no longer diverse
The National Security Law was set down in Hong Kong on June 30, 2020. Less than a year later, Hong Kong’s Apple Daily, which just celebrated its 26th birthday, also landed. On June 17, Apple Daily was forced to close within a week. As of press time, at least seven Apple employees have been arrested, in addition to the management level, but also responsible for writing reviewers, Hong Kong police warned that more arrests of Apple employees in the future cannot be ruled out. Apple didn’t make it to July 1st after all. As the Communist Party celebrates its centenary, press freedom in Hong Kong is dying fast. Once a bastion of press freedom, Hong Kong fell from 18th place globally in 2002 to 80th in 2021 on Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index. Among the 15 former employees of Apple in Hong Kong interviewed by this newspaper, the oldest one has been working for Apple for 25 and a half years, and the shortest one has been working for Apple for five months. Some of them have continued to work for Apple even after the National Security Law officially took effect. After the golden age of freedom, the worst may yet come for Hong Kong’s press. Some say that journalists are most needed in the worst age.
The chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, Chan Lang Sing, said that behind these actions, from the prosecution of Lai under the National Security Act to the arrest of company executives and the crackdown on Apple, the government wants to send a simple message to the Hong Kong press: “There will be consequences for reporting, commenting and journalism.” He pointed out that in the year since the National Security Law was enacted, Hong Kong’s press has suffered several blows, such as the purge of Radio Television Hong Kong, the removal of the top management of Cable TV and Now News, and the use of license plate checking by journalist Lucy Choi “Apple’s death is just a reflection of the dying industry. Everyone’s “last” is different, no journalist in Hong Kong thinks they are doing something illegal, it used to be good to be a journalist in Hong Kong, but now you have to think, in order to do the right thing, what price to pay? Articles praising the government are not newsworthy, it is our job to criticize it and find out the problem.”
Hong Kong citizens hold up the last copy of Apple Daily in solidarity outside the Apple Daily building in the early hours of June 24, 2021
