The media “CitizenNews” announces the stop of its publication in reaction after the closure of the pro-democracy site “Stand News”. Seven of its members were arrested last week.
Independent journalism is fading even further from Hong Kong. This Monday morning, journalists from the Hong Kong news site CitizenNews announced that they would cease their activities out of fear for their safety. This closure comes less than a week after the closure of the pro-democracy information site News stand, who was the target of searches and seven arrests for “Seditious publication”, latest example of the crackdown on the local press by authorities loyal to Beijing.
CitizenNews, a non-partisan news site founded in 2017 by a group of seasoned journalists and funded by its readers, is one of Hong Kong’s most popular online news outlets, with over 800,000 social media subscribers. Its website will no longer be updated as of midnight Monday evening. On the occasion of this last day, the journalists explained that their decision originated in the raid carried out last week within News stand.
“We have done our best not to break any laws, but it is difficult to know the contours of law enforcement and we can no longer feel safe to work,” justifies Chris Yeung, co-founder of CitizenNews and former chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA). “Journalists are also human beings who have families and friends”, he adds.
“I don’t even know what ‘safe information’ is”
Chris Yeung explains that his editorial staff had not been contacted by the police, but decided to close because of what happened in other media. “Can we work on ‘safe news’? I don’t even know what “safe information” is, adds editor-in-chief Daisy Li, also former president of the HKJA.
As these journalists spoke, the new members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council reserved for “Patriots” took an oath of loyalty. Last week, 89 of 90 lawmakers issued a statement supporting the national security police raid on News stand. In unison, the nationalist daily Global Times welcomes the closure of CitizenNews. “Like News stand, he also published articles severely criticizing the central government and the Chinese Communist Party ”, writes the diary.
Over the weekend, Yonden Lhatoo, news editor at the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s leading English-language daily, owned by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, called criticism from Western countries of the end of press freedom in Hong Kong as “Devoid of morality” and advised them to sweep outside their door first. To illustrate his point, he mentioned the case of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, imprisoned in a British prison pending his extradition to the United States.
the New York Times and the Washington post have moved part of their teams
Hong Kong has long been considered, due to its great autonomy from Beijing, as a bastion of press freedom in Asia and many international media had established their regional headquarters there. But the climate for the press has deteriorated considerably with the muscular recovery that followed the popular mobilization of 2019. A draconian law on national security, imposed by Beijing in 2020, has become the main instrument of repression against dissent .
In June, the pro-democracy journal Apple Daily closed after its assets were frozen and its executives were arrested. News stand closed its doors last week after seven arrests in connection with this media. Among them, its editor-in-chief Patrick Lam and his predecessor Chung Pui-kuen, since indicted for “Conspiracy to carry out a seditious publication”. With few exceptions, the local media are increasingly following the official line, while the executive has made the public service broadcaster RTHK close to the Chinese official media, which are subject to tight censorship.
AFP, CNN, Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and Bloomberg are among the foreign media with regional headquarters in Hong Kong. the New York Times and the Washington post moved part of theirs to Seoul due to the political situation in the former British colony.