林保華

The importance of press freedom

    By Paul Lin 林保華
Taipei Times  2024.9.21

I was a member of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) when I was in Hong Kong. Although I was not a journalist, my income from doing media work exceeded that from my job at school. That was why I was able to join.

I was oppressed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) before Hong Kong’s handover in 1997. I was even denied entry by China, which was recorded in the HKJA’s yearbook. The union voicing support for me was the reason why I have been keeping an eye on what has been happening to them despite having left the territory.

The CCP has always tried to suppress freedom of speech, with the HKJA being a thorn in its side. The Hong Kong Federation of Journalists (HKFJ) was established in 1996 by the CCP, with the aim of countering the HKJA.

Yet, the HKFJ’s first chairperson Chan Kin-ming (陳堅明) died in a hotel in Washington during a visit to the US in 1998. The federation has not wielded any significant influence even with the support of the CCP.

The CCP has since focused on suppressing the HKJA, especially since the anti-extradition bill protests in 2019, and smearing the union.

At least 15 journalists have been sent e-mails and letters with defamatory content from self-proclaimed “patriots” to their home addresses, workplaces and other venues, while their family members, and landlords, employers and organizations they are associated with have also received abuse, HKJA chair Selina Cheng (鄭嘉如) said at a news conference on Friday last week.

The harassment appeared to be systematic and coordinated, and Cheng was also one of the targets.

Reporters Without Borders, an international non-profit organization that promotes freedom of information, urged the international community to take action to support Hong Kong journalists.

The intimidations made an explicit implication of loss of jobs and homes for the journalists and their families. What happened that made these “patriots” threaten the journalists and people around them by such underhanded means?

The HKJA voted in a new Executive Committee and chair in June.

Ever since Beijing imposed the National Security Law in 2020 and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance was enacted this year to implement Article 23 of the Basic Law, various political parties, groups and student unions have been disbanded under pressure, while others have not dared to take on official roles.

The HKJA has also faced similar problems. As a result, many of the candidates who ran in the re-election are employed by foreign media outlets, which are supposed to be less threatened by the increasing pressure from the tense political atmosphere.

Hong Kong Secretary for Security Chris Tang (鄧炳強) said he thought it was a “foreign journalist association” when he looked at the list of candidates.

Despite warnings of infiltration by law enforcement, voice recording and identity recognition, 12 candidates were elected on June 22 to be members of the HKJA board, many of whom were reporters from foreign media and freelance journalists.

Cheng, who worked for the Wall Street Journal when she was elected as head of the union, was fired by the newspaper on July 17.

The chief editor of the paper’s foreign desk, who is based in the UK, traveled to Hong Kong to deliver the message to her in person, Cheng said in a statement.

Dow Jones, the newspaper’s parent company, declined to comment on the sacking.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Cheng went to Sorbonne University in Paris to study philosophy and sociology. After graduating, she worked for The Associated Press when the “Umbrella movement” broke out in 2014. She went to Columbia University in the US for a master’s degree in journalism, furthering her studies in investigative reporting.

It was shocking that such a talent was fired by her US employer.

On the day of the HKJA’s election, two of the elected candidates resigned from the board, while two others later stepped down.

Despite losing her job, Cheng fought for Hong Kong’s press freedom alongside her board members.

It is important for Taiwanese to know that the HKJA is the only union that has not collapsed under the pressure of the National Security Law. It is also essential for journalists in Taiwan to learn a lesson from Hong Kong and cherish the press freedom they enjoy in their nation.

Members of the Taiwanese media should also encourage and support the HKJA more often.

Paul Lin is a political commentator.

Translated by Fion Khan