Announcing that it would move its Asian digital news operation, about a third of its Hong Kong staff, to Seoul, the Times said the security law meant it was “prudent to make contingency plans and begin diversifying our editing staff. in the region “.
The new legislation, which came into effect on July 1, penalizes secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. Authorities previously said it will affect a small handful of Hong Kong people, while critics pointed to its wide reach and ill-defined crimes as cause for alarm.
While an internal email announcement was sent about the Times move overnight, some of the newspaper’s staff in Hong Kong learned of the situation on Wednesday morning, as news of the decision was widely shared on Twitter. , before managers could address them, a source with knowledge of the said announcement.
With strong protections for freedom of expression, proximity to mainland China and generous visa policies, Hong Kong has long been a major media hub in Asia. Multiple outlets base their regional operations in the city, including CNN, Bloomberg, Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Increasing cold
The new security law has created anxiety in the Hong Kong media community due to its new crimes and Indefinite proposals for greater “supervision and regulation” of journalists in the city.
Article 4 of the law says that “the freedoms of expression, press, publication, association, assembly, procession and demonstration will be protected.” But it also criminalizes the leak of “state secrets,” a vague term commonly used in China to cover a variety of issues deemed to be in the national interest and which has been used in the past to imprison journalists on the mainland. That could deter both journalists and sources from reporting or collaborating on stories related to government affairs.
Officials have denied that the law is vague and have pointed to the protections described in it. In response to a question from the city’s Foreign Correspondents Club earlier this month On whether the government could guarantee press freedom, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said that if “journalists in Hong Kong can give me a 100% guarantee that they will not commit any crime under this national law, then I can do the same. ” “
When asked by CNN about press freedoms at a press conference on the law shortly after its enactment, Lam said people would be free to criticize it, including journalists. But she warned: “If there is more, if you are involved in the organization or collusion, that is another matter. It is a matter of evidence and the law.”
Of particular concern to many reporters is how a new compliance committee outlined in the law will operate to manage the media, and whether increased “oversight” will mean creating Chinese-style journalism visas. Such visas come with strict supervision and can be difficult to obtain. In the past, the government has also refused to renew work permits for some journalists based in mainland China, forcing them to leave the country.
Multiple media organizations in the city, including the Times, are experiencing delays in obtaining new visas, sources with knowledge of the situation said. It is unclear whether this is due to the new law or due to other circumstances, such as the continuing coronavirus pandemic.
No other foreign news organization has yet to go as far as the Times to prepare to move some operations out of town, but there are ongoing conversations between staff and managers in many media.
Several Wall Street Journal employees said managers had been in preliminary consultations with staff about possible preferences for cities outside of Hong Kong, in case they had to move into the future, but there were no immediate plans to do so. AFP, a French government-funded news agency with major operations in Hong Kong, is also having talks about its future, a source said, although she is committed to staying in the city.
When asked about CNN’s position, a spokesperson said, “There are no plans to move from Hong Kong at this time.”
“If our ability to operate there is compromised, of course we will review it,” they added.
Many organizations will hate leaving Hong Kong, with its strong transport connections to both China and the rest of Asia and low taxes. While Singapore is used as a base of operations by some media, including the BBC, it has its own less than perfect record on press freedom. Other regional capitals, like Tokyo, are much more expensive to operate and can be difficult to obtain visas for staff.
The NYT said it “considered Bangkok, Seoul, Singapore and Tokyo” and that, ultimately, “South Korea was attractive, among other reasons, for its friendship with foreign business, the independent press and its central role in various news stories. important in Asia. “
Self-censorship
While the new security law may cause international media to leave the city or curtail its operations in Hong Kong, the situation is much more dire for the local press.
“In the past, many journalists have been jailed for violating national security law in mainland China because of their reports or articles,” said HKJA President Chris Yeung.
The report found that even before the law was enacted, Hong Kong’s press freedom had “fallen to a record low” following sustained and often violent protests against the government last year and multiple incidents involving journalists and police.
“The decline is the strongest since the survey was launched in 2013,” the association said. “Both the public and journalists expressed concern about the threat to the personal safety of journalists by covering the news.”
Concerns about the security law go beyond reporting protests or Hong Kong independence advocates. In particular, the new crimes related to “state secrets” raised alarm due to the extensive way in which they have been applied in China in the past to quell reports of corruption and government misconduct.
“The problem is that what constitutes ‘state secret’ or intelligence is undefined, but must ultimately be decided by the (Hong Kong) chief executive,” said an investigative journalist with a prominent Hong Kong center. . “The damage to the press is greater when the so-called ‘red line’ or the operational space are not explicit, so news editors and journalists will censor themselves, for fear of stepping on what would become illegal, when the government thus I decide. ”
The journalist, who requested anonymity to speak freely about the law, added that “the essence of the investigation reports is to reveal the irregularities committed by the government, its officials or others in positions of power. Most of the time, the stories that we produce are unfavorable to the government’s position, often disrupting the status quo and leading to intense public attention, scrutiny or ‘hatred’, the latter of which is a crime under the law. “
– Hadas Gold contributed to this report.
.
