Advertisement
Press freedom in Hong Kong
OpinionComment
Jeff Nankivell
Andrew Heyn
Hanscom Smith
Elizabeth Ward
Jeff Nankivell,Andrew Heyn,Hanscom SmithandElizabeth Ward

Opinion | Media freedom in Hong Kong and elsewhere needs defending more than ever

  • Threats against journalists and barriers to information access should be rightly viewed as attacks on human rights themselves
  • Media Freedom Coalition and Unesco’s Global Media Defence Fund are part of global efforts to address the impunity over attacks on journalists and promote media freedom

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
A member of the media receives medical help after being hit in the face with a projectile fired by police during clashes with protesters in Hong Kong on September 29 last year. The global environment for media has worsened. Photo: AFP
Jeff Nankivell,Andrew Heyn,Hanscom SmithandElizabeth Ward

The world is becoming a more hostile place for journalists. In both online and offline spaces, journalists are confronted with threats of torture, kidnapping, harassment, imprisonment and murder. Such threats against journalists are often committed with impunity and serve to intimidate journalists and constrict media environments.

Advertisement
Among several worrying trends, the proportion of countries with a “very bad” media freedom ranking rose to 13 per cent this year, according to the World Press Freedom Index. Lethal attacks against journalists also remain relatively common. Although attacks have decreased slightly, Reporters Without Borders has documented that 49 journalists were killed for their work in 2019 alone.

Female journalists and media professionals also face the brunt of threats, attacks and intimidation online, further jeopardising their safety and ability to speak freely. Unaccountable digital tools such as artificial intelligence have been deployed on a massive scale to curate, moderate and censor news content online.

Surveillance, and attacks on anonymity of sources and encryption have increased the scale of the threat facing journalists and further complicated attempts to end impunity.

Hong Kong is a vibrant international city but media freedom here is under attack. The many cases of violence against media during the civil unrest last year were the starkest examples of a years-long downward trend marked also by the expulsion of foreign journalists, increasing restrictions on media access, and harassment and demonisation by political actors.

02:24

Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai cleared of threatening reporter from rival Hong Kong newspaper

Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai cleared of threatening reporter from rival Hong Kong newspaper
The recent arrest of an RTHK producer is also a worrying development. Once at 18th place on the World Press Freedom Index in 2002, today Hong Kong sits at 80th place. With the imposition of the national security law, media in Hong Kong – or those abroad reporting on Hong Kong – must now try to navigate vaguely defined laws in an environment of heightened scrutiny and potential punishment.
Advertisement