Changes to Hong Kong Press Freedoms After the National Security Law
From an open-panel discussion held in Hong Kong in early July
In early July, the news agency Hong Kong Citizen News hosted an open-panel discussion on the topic of: the rule-of-law and press freedoms under the national security law. One of the panelists was Wu Lik-hon (Wikipedia Profile in Chinese), a Cantonese editor for Radio Free Asia. Wu has experience reporting in mainland China. He commented on how Hong Kong press freedoms could change under the Hong Kong national security law. These notes contain translated parts of what Wu said, relevant to the expected changes to press freedoms in Hong Kong.
Between the 1:11-1:21 mark:
If reporting on news on the pandemic from unofficial non-governmental information sources, any of this information not directly sourced from official governmental sources can be deemed illegal. Reporters may become liable for spreading any information which results in the dislike of the government by civilians.
Reporters must be careful with news for civil rights defense activism. They can still report on instances where activists are prosecuted, detained or sentenced. However, whether or not reporters can report on the ideologies of the activists is questionable, since these ideologies would be considered “subversion of state power.”
Persecution of reporting activities against the law may come retrospectively, indefinitely into the future. Anything published by reporters can serve as evidence for the future.
Any data from unofficial sources are classified as “rumors” and thereby is illegal to report on. To government officials, rumors include all information which cause societal instability and negatively impact their ease of governance.
The law covers any reporting done overseas. There may be legal risks and consequences if a reporter releases any information overseas. This is especially worrisome to individuals who desire to visit to Hong Kong in the future.
Reporters have already been practicing increased self-censorship since the imposition of the national security law.
The apparatus for implementing the national security law is being cloned from the mainland into Hong Kong. This includes security agency officers and propaganda department staffs.
This invisible reporting “red-line” threatens the physical safety of reporters and causes persistent unease for reporters. The location of this “red-line” is not fixed and may change, depending on the time of day or upon personnel change.
For self-preservation, the press in Hong Kong cannot avoid self-censorship going forward.
When it comes to legal protections, it is unclear if press agencies can offer any tangible protection for its reporting staff.
Between the 1:45-1:47 mark:
The law covers any information being reshared from overseas sources. There has been cases where mainlanders faced arrest for similar actions in the mainland. Ultimately, this depends on how law enforcement interprets the intention of said offenses.
The relationship between news reporters and its readership must change going forward to mimic what has been the case in the mainland. For example, reports that may have been titled“Hundreds Have Died in Floods at This Village, Devastating” may be encoded differently as “The Population of This Village Was 9000 and Has Become 8900 After Floods” to match official figures. It becomes up to the readership to make their own conclusions to get to the facts.
The source video was published July 4 2020: