Tag: Press freedom

Hong Kong Delays Jimmy Lai Trial

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A court in Hong Kong has adjourned the trial of newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai until December 13 after the government sought to block a British lawyer from representing Lai. Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee asked China’s top lawmaking body to decide whether foreign lawyers could participate in national security cases. Authorities accuse Lai of colluding with foreign forces, and he is also facing a charge of sedition. If convicted, he faces a possible life sentence. Lai is the founder of the Apple Daily newspaper that was forced to close…

Study: South Africa Resilient to Chinese Attempts to Influence Media 

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Johannesburg, South Africa —  South Africa’s free press has been largely successful at resisting efforts by the Chinese government to influence its content, say analysts, affirming a recent study by the U.S.-based think tank Freedom House. “In South Africa, we have a deep historical suspicion of state media,” said Anton Harber, professor of journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. South Africa’s wariness of state media, he said, stems from the country’s legacy of apartheid, the former state policy of racial segregation and discrimination that ended in 1994.…

China Arrests BBC Journalist Covering COVID Protests

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London —  The BBC has said one of its journalists in China was arrested and beaten by police while covering protests on Sunday against the country’s zero-COVID policy. Hundreds of people took to the streets in China’s major cities on Sunday in a rare outpouring of public anger against the state. “The BBC is extremely concerned about the treatment of our journalist Ed Lawrence, who was arrested and handcuffed while covering the protests in Shanghai,” the broadcaster said in a statement. Lawrence, working in the country as an accredited journalist,…

BBC says Chinese police assaulted and detained its reporter at Shanghai protest

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Chinese police assaulted and detained a BBC journalist covering a protest in Shanghai on Sunday, releasing him after several hours, the broadcaster has said. “The BBC is extremely concerned about the treatment of our journalist Ed Lawrence, who was arrested and handcuffed while covering the protests in Shanghai,” a spokesperson for the British public service broadcaster said. “He was held for several hours before being released. During his arrest, he was beaten and kicked by the police. This happened while he was working as an accredited journalist.” Shanghai is one…

Hong Kong journalist union chair arrested weeks before Oxford fellowship

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The head of Hong Kong’s journalist union has been arrested, weeks before he was due to leave for an overseas fellowship at Oxford University. Ronson Chan, the chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), was arrested for allegedly obstructing a police officer and disorderly conduct in a public place. Channel C, the online news outlet Chan works for, said the veteran reporter was taken away by officers who asked to check his identity while he was reporting on a meeting of public housing flat-owners on Wednesday. Police said a…

Chinese government adviser calls for law to ban ‘fake news’

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An adviser to the Chinese government has called for new laws to ban “fabricating and disseminating fake information online”, blaming the rampant disinformation on the internet for polarising Chinese public opinion. Jia Qingguo, a member of China’s highest political advisory body, said he also believed the proliferation of misinformation online had fuelled tensions between China and foreign countries. “For example, there are often people online who, for some purpose, package a foreigner’s vicious remarks against China as the view of everyone in that country towards China in order to incite…

Hong Kong’s Citizen News to close citing fears for staff safety

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The Hong Kong independent online news portal Citizen News has said it will cease operations from Tuesday in the face of what it described as a deteriorating media environment in the Chinese-ruled city and to ensure the safety of its staff. “Regrettably, the rapid changes in society and worsening environment for media make us unable to achieve our goal fearlessly. Amid this crisis, we have to first make sure everyone on the boat is safe,” Citizen News, which was established in 2017, said in a statement. Pro-democracy activists and rights…

‘Journalism is not sedition’: Blinken urges release of seven arrested in Hong Kong media raids

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The US has called on Chinese and Hong Kong authorities to release the seven people linked to the now-shuttered independent news outlet Stand News who were arrested on sedition charges during a police crackdown on Wednesday. Secretary of state Antony Blinken said in a statement: “We call on PRC [People’s Republic of China] and Hong Kong authorities to cease targeting Hong Kong’s free and independent media and to immediately release those journalists and media executives who have been unjustly detained and charged. “A confident government that is unafraid of the…

Journalists in China face ‘nightmare’ worthy of Mao era, press freedom group says

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Xi Jinping has created a “nightmare” of media oppression worthy of the Mao era, and Hong Kong’s journalism is in “freefall”, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). In a major report released on Wednesday, the journalism advocacy group detailed the worsening treatment of journalists and tightening of control over information in China, adding to an environment in which “freely accessing information has become a crime and to provide information an even greater crime”. “No matter the topic, those who refuse to comply with the official narrative are accused of harming…