by Lo Fung

Hongkongers used to think the freedom of speech and press freedom is the rock of the society, which would and must not change. Senior officials from Beijing and the SAR government have repeatedly promised these freedoms would not change. To show that these promises are not just empty words, they have even written them in Hong Kong’s constitutional documents, including the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the Basic Law, and even the Bill of Rights Ordinance.

However, since the return of Hong Kong’s sovereignty, both the written and verbal promises have been continuously discounted. There are more and more restrictions and “forbidden areas” to the press freedom and freedom of speech, and actions to obstruct reporting, such as limiting the reporting area, are becoming more common. But these are just the “appetizers.” Since the outbreak of the opposition movement, especially from July this year onward, Beijing and the SAR government are no longer contented with passively setting up restrictions. Instead, they have started to proactively destroy the rock that is the press freedom and freedom of speech.

The biggest hit was definitely from the Hong Kong national security law. Not only no consultation was done before the implementation of this law, but it has also brought in concepts that are not from the Common Law, especially those ambiguous political terms that are often used in the mainland. So it is like having the laws from the mainland directly introduced into Hong Kong. As a result, it is as if the Hong Kong national security law has put traps and forbidden zones within the Hong Kong judicial system, which has greatly reduced human rights and freedom, including freedom of speech. Even experienced legal experts find it hard to figure out where the red lines and forbidden zones are. News media and normal citizens feel like they are in a minefield: they never know what they say with whom they talk to or what they share online would get them into legal trouble. It is safe to say, the Hong Kong national security law has changed the freedom of speech environment overnight and laid down a lot of traps and crisis.

The introduction of the Hong Kong NSL has seriously damaged the freedom of speech and press freedom, and the strict and hostile attitude of the government’s law enforcement towards journalists and media is also a big problem. The most significant example is probably the case involved Bao Choy, the producer of RTHK’s program “Hong Kong Connection.” She used the search system from the Department of Transport to find a vehicle related to a follow-up report and has committed a technical area. But the police investigated the case like it was a serious crime and sent a large number of police officers to Choy’s home early morning to arrest her. This disproportionally heavy tactic targetting normal reporting activities of journalists reflects how the police disrespect press freedom and the right to report. They even look for opportunities to threaten and “teach them a lesson” to show how powerful the police are.

When dealing with the outspoken politicians, protests, and opinion leaders, the police suppress them even harder with the irrationally strict method, completely ignoring their basic rights and personal freedom. Several months ago, Tam Tak-chi, nicknamed “Fast Beat” was arrested for crimes such as conspiracy of publishing incitement, just because he has shouted slogans in public places. He has been denied bail, which means he will be detained until the case hearing starts in May. So “Fast Beat” will be in prison for eight months “in advance” before even being proven guilty. The repression from the police has badly damaged the personal freedom of “Fast Beat,” and given an equally severe chilling effect to the freedom of speech.

Another example is the founder of this newspaper, Mr. Jimmy Lai. When he went to report to the police station, he was suddenly charged with fraud. What I find difficult to accept is that the police have again denied bail for a fraud charge, which is not a very serious crime. That will keep Mr. Lai in prison for as long as five months before him even being proven guilty. Mr. Lai has always been brave to publicly criticize Beijing and the SAR government’s way of governance. What the police did has shown those in power is trying to remove Mr. Lai’s chance to voice freely and will proceed to put pressure on other outspoken people and media, including our newspaper.

The huge political pressure from the regime has deformed Hong Kong’s press freedom. Unfortunately, the “internal problem” is also becoming worse. We cannot purely rely on the constitution and law to safeguard press freedom and freedom of speech; we also need news media and journalists to be brave enough to report the truth, defend different opinions and try their best to do high-quality reporting. i-Cable TV has always been the guarantee of high-quality news reporting since it was established nearly 30 years ago, especially their investigative reporting and Chinese news reporting, which have been recognized by the audience of both Hong Kong and other areas.

Suddenly, everything was changed last week. Several unfit senior executives used redundancy as an excuse to “clean up” the news department. They have eliminated the investigative reporting team. Then the Chinese news team resigned en masse, which has led to the low morale of the other staff and the drastic drop of the company’s credibility that is unlikely to regain. What we must know is that, since the handover of Hong Kong’s sovereignty, there are fewer and fewer independent, outspoken, and quality news media. Years of persistence from the i-Cable TV news journalists was dissolved overnight by four incompetent management staff just like that. This has hit all the frontline journalists and space of press freedom extremely hard. Chris Patten, the former Hong Kong Governor, had said before leaving his post that he was worried some people in Hong Kong would give away Hong Kong’s autonomy. He has, indeed, a great insight.

Nowadays, facing the heavy punches from Beijing, with the cooperation of some Hong Kong bootlickers, Hong Kong is losing its press freedom and a high degree of autonomy not little by little, but like water breaking out from a broken dike. In the face of such unprecedented adversity, we have no room to retreat but to continue to persist. As we said in our article to the readers a few days ago, “there is Apple Daily as long as there are Hongkongers. We will not surrender. Let us and all Hongkongers have courage.”

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