Letters | UK can hardly criticise Hong Kong on press freedom

Readers discuss two arrests in the UK, and efforts to cultivate patriotism in Hong Kong

Reading Time:2 minutes

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy has been critical of Hong Kong’s national security law. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:30pm, 15 Sep 2024

Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at [email protected] or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification

The UK government and Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, among many others, have been fiercely critical of Hong Kong’s national security law and the recent Hong Kong District Court’s ruling which found two journalists from the closed media outlet Stand News guilty of conspiring to publish seditious material.

Patten said the verdicts marked “a dark day for press freedom”. David Lammy, now the UK’s foreign secretary, once said in parliament that Hong Kong’s Article 23 national security law was “the latest degradation of the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong. It is causing fear and unease not only to Hongkongers, but to UK and other foreign nationals living and working in Hong Kong”.

There needs to be, I believe, some balance and perspective in proclamations of this kind. Recent actions by the police in the United Kingdom are, perhaps, even more worrying than those taken by the Hong Kong authorities.

Independent British journalist Richard Medhurst was arrested on arrival at Heathrow Airport and reporter and activist Sarah Wilkinson was arrested at 7.30am at her home. Both have been drawing attention to Gaza. In both cases, the counter terrorism police were involved and both said their human rights were abused.

The police actions appear to be acts of intimidation designed to deter reporting which the UK government does not like and are contrary to Article 9 (related to arbitrary arrest) and Article 19 (related to freedom of expression and opinion) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Curiously, and very worrying, is that although reports of these events are available on social media, the UK mainstream media seems to have ignored them.