Further threats to Hong Kong's press freedom by way of the shock arrest of a Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) journalist

 

Still alive and beautiful but not able to fly as easily as it would like, 

with wings that are no longer whole: a visual metaphor for Hong Kong? 

First, the Hong Kong police did nothing on July 21st, 2019 -- or, at best, arrived late at the scene of a terrible attack inside Yuen Long MTR station.  Then, on August 26th of this year, they arrested victims of the attack (including Democratic Party legislative councillor Lam Cheuk-ting) and sought to rewrite history by painting an alternative picture of what happened that night.

One major reason why they have not been able to plausibly do so is that the press (including in the person of Gwynneth Ho, then a Stand News reporter, now a political activist) were there to live stream and bear witness to what was happening on the night.  And in aftermath, the likes of the New York Times and Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) produced in-depth investigative videos of the Yuen Long attacks; with RTHK's Hong Kong Connection program revisiting the incident again -- and providing additional information -- and uploading that particular episode onto Youtube just a few days ago.

For this and many other reasons, Hong Kong's sole public broadcaster has ended up in the powers that be's bad books.  RTHK has been under threat for some time now; and the Hong Kong police force have shown their displeasure by doing such as ending the partnership which had enabled the production of  Police Report, a weekly program telling the public about recent crime trends and giving crime prevention advice that had run for 47 years before its termination this year. Then today, the police took things further by arresting the producer of RTHK's Yuen Long attack programs.     

 

Coming the day after legislative councillor Ted Hui's arrest and two days after the arrest of seven other democratic political figures, this latest negative "development" is pretty shocking.  (I realize Hong Kong is now effectively a police state, especially after the implementation of China's national security law for Hong Kong, but, in all honesty, we never want to get to thinking or accepting that this is all to be expected and "the new normal".)  A measure of the scale of the shock can be seen by the likes of The Guardian (over in the UK) giving Bao Choy Yuk-ling's arrest front page coverage on its website on the USA's election day.    

 

Over here in Hong Kong, pro-democracy politicians released statements that Choy's arrest represents a clear arrest on Hong Kong's press freedom.  RTHK also has reported that the chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, Chris Yeung, was upset by the arrest of their station's producer and has accused authorities of “exhausting every possible way” to make life difficult for journalists who are trying to uncover the truth.  

 

It really is stressful to be a reporter in Hong Kong these days, and maybe more so if you work for RTHK than many other organizations.  (In fact, I sometimes wonder who actually feels more under pressure: the staff of RTHK or Apple Daily!)  Something that should be of some comfort though to these journalists: that senior people in their organization still will come to their defence, and pretty promptly too.  In Choy's case, RTHK's Director of Broadcasting, Leung Ka-wing, went on the record within hours of the news of her arrest to state that that the organization is "afraid" and "worried" but will not alter its editorial principles or stop investigative reporting.     

 

Sad but true: this is something that can't be taken for granted anymore in Hong Kong -- along with senior personnel of major organizations being moved to do the right thing.  Indeed, also today, the New World First Bus company came out and stated that it will not provide legal assistance to its driver charged with careless driving after sounding his horn at a protest unless he pleads guilty!  Consequently, the driver may end up applying to the 612 Humanitarian Fund established to help arrested protestors with such as legal assistance even though he was actually working on September 6th rather than actually out protesting on the street that day!