“Journalism is not a crime,” says the Media Freedom Coalition.
The coalition is protesting the August 2024 guilty verdicts for two former editors of the former online publication Stand News, Patrick Lam Shiu-tung and Chung Pui-kuen (shown above). They have been detained for over two and a half years. Their alleged crime is sedition.
The group says that the verdicts are part of a pattern “of increased media self-censorship and the hostility by Hong Kong authorities” toward all local and foreign journalists, “especially since the imposition of the national security law in June 2020.”
The point is inarguable, although Hong Kong officials argue it.
The coalition also “called on Hong Kong and mainland Chinese authorities to abide by their international human rights commitments and legal obligations” (“Hong Kong authorities reject claims by 23-nation coalition about state of media freedom,” South China Morning Post, September 10, 2024).
In addition to the United States, the United Kingdom and France, the statement was signed by Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands….
A government spokesman said on Tuesday it strongly rejected the fact-twisting remarks and “baseless smears” by the coalition, saying Hong Kong residents enjoyed freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which were protected under the Basic Law and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights.
The “commitments” and “legal obligations” that authorities are being enjoined to abide by are at best insincere. As long as their words and actions buck up true believers in the Chinese Communist Party and demoralize everybody else, they don’t care about being caught in obvious lies.
But they like to pretend they’re being consistent. The Post paraphrases the government spokesman as saying that “journalists had an obligation to abide by all local laws and their freedom to comment on government policies remained uninhibited as long as they did not violate the law.”
Anybody living in a totalitarian state or pacing a jail cell is free to do and say all the things that are permitted; only unpermitted things are off-limits.
