RFA Leaves Hong Kong, Citing Safety Concerns for Staff Amid Article 23

The ambiance for media freedom in Hong Kong has turn out to be more and more inhospitable for the reason that 2020 Nationwide Safety Legislation (NSL) and the Article 23 laws that handed final week. The newest instance occurred on Friday, when Radio Free Asia (RFA)’s president and CEO Bay Fang introduced that, “in gentle of Hong Kong’s passage of Article 23,” RFA is shutting its Hong Kong bureau:

Considerations concerning the security of RFA workers and reporters in Hong Kong have led us to restructure our on-the-ground operations there. Whereas RFA will retain its official media registration, at the moment we now not have full-time personnel in Hong Kong and have closed our bodily bureau. Actions by Hong Kong authorities, together with referring to RFA as a “international power,” elevate critical questions on our potential to function in security with the enactment of Article 23. 

Since opening our Hong Kong bureau in 1996, RFA has operated as a non-public information group, its editorial independence safeguarded by a firewall endorsed by the identical physique that funds it, the U.S. Congress. We acknowledge RFA’s frontline standing – as it’s among the many final unbiased information organizations reporting on occasions taking place in Hong Kong in Cantonese and Mandarin. This restructuring signifies that RFA will shift to utilizing a distinct journalistic mannequin reserved for closed media environments. I commend RFA’s journalists and workers for making this tough transition potential. For our audiences in Hong Kong and mainland China, who depend on RFA’s well timed, uncensored journalism: relaxation assured, our programming and content material will proceed with out disruption. [Source]

Fiona Chow on the South China Morning Publish (SCMP) supplied particulars on RFA’s restructuring behind the scenes:

An insider instructed the Publish on Friday that among the many 4 full-time workers within the metropolis, two have been lately relocated to Washington, one to Taipei and the remaining one was made redundant.

There have been additionally a number of staffing adjustments after Beijing imposed a nationwide safety regulation in 2020, together with two reporters who have been relocated to Taiwan 18 months in the past.

[…] Whereas the Legislative Council was holding marathon conferences earlier this month to push ahead the Safeguarding Nationwide Safety Ordinance, insiders on the station instructed the Publish that reporters have been instructed to go away Hong Kong as early as late February, with its workplace to be handed again to the station’s landlord in mid-April. [Source]

RFA’s announcement comes lower than per week after Hong Kong enacted Article 23. Whereas the NSL criminalized secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with international forces, the Article 23 laws expanded on that to incorporate harsher punishments for broadly-defined crimes comparable to treason, sedition, revealing state secrets and techniques, espionage, and exterior interference. RFA reported that almost 20 minutes earlier than Hong Kong’s Legislative Council started voting, CCTV had already revealed content material asserting that the regulation had handed.

Kanis Leung from the AP described how the Hong Kong authorities had beforehand focused RFA, placing added strain on the media outlet:

In January, police issued a letter to RFA and condemned it for quoting “false statements” by needed activist Ted Hui that they stated smeared the police power.

Hui, a former pro-democracy lawmaker, is among the overseas-based activists for whom police have supplied awards of 1 million Hong Kong {dollars} ($128,000) for data resulting in their arrest. He’s accused of requesting international nations to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and China.

In February, Hong Kong’s safety minister, Chris Tang, stated some feedback quoted in reviews by RFA concerning the new laws have been “faux” and “false.”

[…] When requested whether or not the work of RFA is taken into account “exterior interference” or “espionage,” Tang stated any violation of the regulation must be judged on a case-by-case foundation. If somebody intentionally used false data to defame the federal government’s legislative work, he stated he needed to let Hong Kongers see clearly the intention of those “exterior forces” and those that have fled and need to endanger Hong Kong’s safety. [Source]

In a joint letter firmly opposing the brand new laws, 145 organizations, together with many who doc press freedom, acknowledged, “With the passage of Article 23, investigative journalism and reporting on ‘delicate’ political points – given the broad definitions of ‘state secrets and techniques’ and ‘sedition’ – [has] turn out to be even riskier.” David Pierson at The New York Instances highlighted considerations amongst advocates of press freedom that Article 23 laws will additional endanger journalistic work in Hong Kong:

[A]dvocates of press freedom say the legal guidelines considerably elevate the dangers for journalists working within the metropolis. Its obscure definition of exterior interference could be broadly utilized to common journalistic work, the activists say.

[…] Cédric Alviani, the Asia-Pacific bureau director of Reporters With out Borders, stated Hong Kong’s nationwide safety legal guidelines have been putting strain on native journalists to censor themselves to keep away from crossing the federal government’s “blurry pink strains.”

“What we’re seeing is the Chinese language system of repression in opposition to the fitting to data and unbiased journalism is being utilized an increasing number of in Hong Kong,” Mr. Alviani stated. [Source]

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Division stated, “RFA’s resolution [to close its bureau] represents the most recent consequence of Hong Kong authorities’ persevering with suppression of media freedom.” On Friday, the U.S. authorities introduced that it’s imposing new visa restrictions on “a number of Hong Kong officers answerable for the intensifying crackdown on rights and freedoms,” together with these concerned in Article 23 laws. That very same day, the State Division shared a report back to Congress assessing the situations of assorted freedoms in Hong Kong from February 2023 by December 2023. An excerpt from the part “Affect on Freedom of the Press” highlights Hong Kong authorities strain on journalists and the closure of quite a few media shops:

Greater than 150 international information shops acquired criticism letters from the Hong Kong authorities in the course of the yr, citing articles and editorials concerning the native authorities, the NSL, and main occasions in Hong Kong.  These letters, usually underneath the identify of the Chief Govt or different high-level officers, characterised the reporting and editorials as “grossly biased,” “groundless allegations,” or as having “reached new ranges of nastiness.”  In February 2023, pro-Beijing media outlet Oriental Every day Information accused the police of “urgent the media” after the newspaper acquired a letter from the police accusing it of criticizing police in “a biased and derisive method.”

[…] In Could 2023, native on-line information platform Transit Jam ceased operations.  The outlet was established in 2020 and reported on native transportation and infrastructure points.  The announcement got here days after pro-Beijing media attacked Transit Jam proprietor James Ockenden, alleging that Ockenden’s protest throughout Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Workplace Director Xia Baolong’s April go to was orchestrated by exterior forces, and accused Ockenden of publishing “anti-government posts” on the net outlet and social media.

In June 2023, Residents’ Radio, a pro-democracy radio station based in 2005 by former lawmaker Tsang Kin-shing, ceased operations after Tsang stated the Grasp Seng Financial institution froze the station’s checking account. [Source]

RFA’s departure follows different information organizations which have moved some or all of their personnel from Hong Kong. In 2020, underneath related strain from the Hong Kong authorities, the New York Instances relocated its Hong Kong-based digital information operation to Seoul, South Korea. Since 2002, Hong Kong has dropped from 18 to 148 (out of 180) in Reporters With out Borders’ (RSF) international press freedom rankings. At the least ten journalists in Hong Kong are at present in detention, in response to RSF. One distinguished media determine going through prosecution is Jimmy Lai, the founding father of Apple Every day, which the federal government pressured to shut in June 2021. Lai’s nationwide safety trial is at present underway following greater than 1,000 days of pretrial detention. Two senior editors of Stand Information are additionally on trial for sedition. Stand Information closed in December 2021, simply days earlier than the closure of yet one more unbiased native outlet, Citizen Information. Hong Kong’s public broadcaster Radio Tv Hong Kong (RTHK) has additionally been neutered following the NSL. 

With information of RFA leaving Hong Kong because of security considerations, it is value noting that simply 6 years in the past, one may argue that HK was nonetheless the middle of media freedom in Asia. Now it is Taiwan, whose hard-earned freedom of expression China additionally seeks to destroy.https://t.co/tlh7xQLeUo

— Chris Horton 何貴森 (@heguisen) March 30, 2024

SCMP journalist Minnie Chan stays lacking 5 months after she disappeared whereas on a reporting journey to Beijing, with little data accessible on her present whereabouts or situation. A lot of her colleagues and fellow reporters concern that she is the most recent Hong Kong journalist to be arbitrarily detained for her reporting. 

It’s 5 months since award successful #journalist Minnie Chan final filed a narrative. Her present & former colleagues in addition to fellow #journalists from @Bloomberg, @cnni, @nytimesworld, @AFP proceed to be deeply involved for her welfare and hope she is okay. https://t.co/1a7dffAu6Y

— Jarrod Watt (@Jay_Watt) March 31, 2024

In the meantime, a number of unbiased Hong Kong bookstores marked their final days in operation this week. Hans Tse from Hong Kong Free Press reported on one among them, Mount Zero, the place tons of of ebook lovers gathered to pay tribute:

Mount Zero introduced its resolution to shut in December final yr, citing a string of inspections by authorities following nameless complaints. Over the previous few months, folks have discovered methods to pay tribute to the bookstore.

[…] Mount Zero was based in 2018, earlier than a wave of latest unbiased bookstores opened within the metropolis after it was shaken by the 2019 protests and unrest after which hit by Covid-19.

[…] Many supporters on Sunday carried a tote bag with a Chinese language phrase that learn: “From phrases to prosperity.” The saying is an obvious parody of “from stability to prosperity,” a phrase generally utilized by the federal government after the Beijing-imposed nationwide safety regulation snuffed out the pro-democracy protests and unrest that started in 2019.

Judy stated the baggage, designed as a farewell memento for Mount Zero, have been hand-printed by residents within the space. She added that it was a sworn statement to the neighborhood that grew from the bookstore. [Source]

Immediately can be the final day in biz of pro-democracy Sai Kung Retailer run by ex district councillor Debby Chan. The shop has been presenting native , eco merchandise, advocacy merchs , merchandise from different unbiased biz like media and bookstores.

The store’s little again story 👉🏻 https://t.co/qPd0c2i5RN pic.twitter.com/KXMR8HoSmX

— Xinqi Su 蘇昕琪 (@XinqiSu) April 1, 2024