Self-Censorship Shifts Hong Kong Media Role

As Hong Kong marks the eighth anniversary today of its return to Chinese rule, its news media are struggling to preserve the independence that set them apart from the mainland’s tightly controlled government presses.

On the surface, little has changed since the former British colony reverted to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997. Hong Kong still is home to one of the most dynamic media markets in Asia. But critics say that Beijing has been curbing the media’s freedom so gradually that it’s easy to miss and that Hong Kong’s fears of losing its identity are starting to be realized.

“China should congratulate itself on the new media atmosphere in Hong Kong,” said Law Yuk Kai, director of the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor. “It’s clear they don’t want to give pro-democratic forces a big voice.”

Perhaps more than anything else, the erosion of media independence is a sign of how much the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, or SAR, has changed despite the pledge that under the “one-country, two-systems” formula, it would retain broad autonomy.

“We are still Hong Kong. We still enjoy a greater degree of freedom. But compared to five or seven years ago, we are very different,” said Yeung Wai Hong, publisher of Next magazine. “This is not what the SAR was meant to be. We do not have a greater degree of autonomy. The average person on the street knows China is calling the shots.”

Beijing has been careful not to muzzle Hong Kong’s media overnight. Instead, officials mostly left things alone in the first years after the hand-over.

Many observers say a massive demonstration on July 1, 2003, became a turning point. The protest, which brought hundreds of thousands of people into the streets, apparently took Beijing by surprise. Mainland officials concluded that the media were part of the problem, and they began to reward publications willing to accommodate Beijing and punish those who disobeyed. The carrot has been money: advertising revenue and access to the vast mainland market.

“The rise of China’s economic power has given it more strength to influence media in Hong Kong,” said Fung Wai Kong, an editorial writer with Apple Daily newspaper. “If you don’t behave, you have to pay a price.”

Mainland and Hong Kong businesses willing to advertise in other Hong Kong publications seem to avoid the Apple Daily, which has retained its independent voice. The popular paper has the second-highest circulation in the territory.

Apple Daily’s journalists may not report on the mainland and are often excluded from public media events in Hong Kong.

“It’s like punishment,” Fung said. “It obviously has an impact on other papers. When they look at what is happening to us, they will think twice before taking a more critical or independent position.”

Critics say that in an industry dominated by tycoons clamoring for business opportunities in the mainland, many media executives are willing to compromise their editorial integrity.

“There is a landslide shift toward the pro-Beijing media,” said Mak Yin Ting, honorary secretary of the Hong Kong Journalists Assn. “In the past, the Hong Kong media was still seen as critical of China and the Hong Kong government. Newspapers are more conservative now, especially regarding issues sensitive to the Chinese government.”

Coverage of commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre is a case in point. Before the 1997 transition, many papers were sympathetic to the democratic cause and willing to give the story prominent play. After 1997, interest waned.

Self-censorship is now an element of survival. Journalists are monitoring the case of veteran Ching Cheong, the Hong Kong-based chief China correspondent for Singapore’s Straits Times. In April, he was detained in southern China, where he was trying to pick up a manuscript by a friend of Zhao Ziyang, the former Communist Party chief purged for opposing the Tiananmen crackdown. Zhao died under house arrest in January.

Beijing says that Ching confessed to spying for foreign agencies, a charge that could carry the death penalty.

“Everybody is pretty scared,” said a Hong Kong magazine writer who covers China, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Now we are worried about any contact with government officials from China. Anything we talk about could potentially be labeled a state secret. The Hong Kong government is not going to protect us. We are now part of China.”

“The Ching Cheong case is really the nail in the coffin for Hong Kong as a center for China-watching,” said Nicolas Becquelin, research director for Human Rights in China, based in Hong Kong. “He was no dissident. He was actually quite close to Beijing. It says even if you are pro-Beijing, experienced, well respected, you can still be arrested and detained. Other people are going to be overly cautious.”