The state of press freedom in Hong Kong laid bare this week by announcements of shutdowns that are the result of censorship and outright fear

  

One of many works created over the years and decades

by Hong Kong political cartoonist Zunzi

 

This has been one of those weeks which has seen further damage inflicted on press freedom in Hong Kong.  On Tuesday, James Ockenden announced on Twitter that he would be closing Transit Jam, the sustainable transportation website he started three years ago; this after, as observed by the Hong Kong Twitterverse member known as Old China Bland, "an article about him being a "foreign agitator" was published in the local Party mouthpiece a week or so ago".

 

And today saw veteran journalist Tim Hamlett announce (first on his blog; and then over on the Hong Kong Free Press website) that he was giving up on writing on Hong Kong politics.  Some informative lines from the announcement: "We are, of course, in dangerous times for people who do not share our government’s high opinion of itself"; and "comparatively harmless cartoonists and writers face a constant flow of official abuse, or as the Hong Kong Journalists Association put it when Ming Pao axed a long-running cartoon this week, “Backed by abundant resources and public power, the SAR government repeatedly targeted a mere [cartoonist], reflecting that Hong Kong cannot tolerate critical voices.”"

 

"Also, the risks seem to be increasing. There were, to quote another old song, “Ten green bottles hanging on the wall” and they have been falling one by one. I do not aspire to be the last one. I am still up for new experiences but the inside of a Hong Kong police cell is not on my bucket list."  (BTW, it's worth noting that Tim Hamlett's final Hong Kong Free Press piece is entitled "Why I am giving up writing about Hong Kong politics" but his blog post on the matter is the more encompassing "Why I am giving up on Hong Kong politics"!)

 

Still, even while I am sad to see the last of Tim Hamlett in the Hong Kong Free Press, the "development" which has shocked residents of the city the most this week is that which came in the wake of Ming Pao publishing a contribution of its regular cartoonist, Zunzi (the nom de plume of veteran political cartoonist Wong Kei-kwan) on Tuesday which poked fun at the small-circle government committees that will hold District Council seats under a proposed "reform" of the city’s local-level administration -- and the Hong Kong government objected to it.

As detailed in a Hong Kong Free Press piece: The cartoon in question the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau took umbrage with "showed one character telling another: “Failing in Chinese, English and math [exams]; high cholesterol; obesity; having heart disease; small stature; colour-blind; short-sighted, all of these are not problems.  As long as the official thinks [somebody] is suitable, they can be appointed to the District Fire Safety Committees [and] District Fight Crime Committees.”" 

 

In a statement on Facebook, the bureau complained that: "The content ignores facts, deceives the public and is discriminatory, insulting people with high cholesterol, heart disease and colour blindness [by] implying they are incapable of contributing to society,” the statement read. “Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak strongly condemns this behaviour."  In so doing, it showed that it lacked a sense of humor and made itself a bigger target of derision than would have otherwise probably been the case.  (For my part, when I first read about this, I genuinely found it hard to believe that this had been a bona fide statement by a government body; and I doubt that I'm the only person who felt this way!)

However, things took a serious and, frankly, disturbing turn the next day (this past Wednesday) when reports came in that Ming Pao was suspending (and, in all likelihood, terminating) Zunzi's comic strip effective this Sunday (May 14th).  Which, more than by the way, meant that more of his cartoons appeared in Ming Pao yesterday and today, and will do so for at at least one more day to come: with yesterday's joking that "to find a street stand of opposition politicians, one may have to fly overseas"; and today's satirizing book censorship in public libraries.

 

Some context: Zunzi's satirical takes on current affairs and public policies in the city have appeared in Ming Pao since 1983 and he is Hong Kong's most prominent Chinese language political cartoonist.  And over his career, he's also produced cartoons for pro-Beijing newspapers New Evening Post and Ta Kung Pao!   

 

Still, it's true enough too though that Zunzi's no stranger to criticism from the government; with previous works having drawn the ire of at least five government departments, including the police, and the Security Bureau formed in the wake of China imposing a national security law on Hong Kong in mid 2020.  So some might say that it's amazing that he's had his work published in Ming Pao for this long (even while others will maintain that political satire is something that mature governments should be thick skinned about).

As per a syndicated AFP report: "Ming Pao was [Zunzi's] last holdout in Hong Kong's mass media after Apple Daily, the Chinese [language] tabloid founded by jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai, was forced to shut down in 2021." Something else worth noting: a year earlier, in 2020, the cartoonist had told AFP that "jokes can be very dangerous.  The powerful try to ... make the masses believe there is no one else but them to follow... Jokes can quickly pierce through all this and nail the lies. They can drag the powerful down from their thrones."