Closure of Radio Free Asia in HK hailed as end of ‘fake news’ era

Netizens in Hong Kong hailed the decision of US-funded Radio Free Asia (RFA) to shut down its Hong Kong office, calling it “another example of the color revolution failing in Hong Kong,” which also shows that this anti-China agency has a guilty conscience and has fled in panic.

RFA on Friday announced it had shut down its Hong Kong office, citing concerns about staff safety, following the implementation of the locally-drafted national security legislation under Article 23 of the Basic Law, local media RTHK reported.

In a statement, RFA said it no longer had full-time staff in Hong Kong and had ceased operations of its physical office, the media report said.

Many netizens in Hong Kong welcomed the RFA decision to exit Hong Kong. “It should have shut down long ago. Good riddance without farewell,” a netizen said. Another netizen said RFA is “the US government’s tool, and its job is to subvert China, and [it’s afraid] being even half a step slow would result in being put into jail.”

Willy Fu, a law professor who is also the director of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong & Macao Studies, told the Global Times on Sunday that RFA prioritizes its political stance over journalistic ethics, violating the professional code of journalists.

“It has repeatedly smeared the legislation of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance and issued withdrawal [from Hong Kong] statements, acting with a guilty conscience, making alarmist statements, inciting public sentiment and creating panic. Its malicious intentions are blatantly obvious,” Fu said, noting that it is fundamentally a disgrace to the journalism industry and must be strongly condemned.

Funded by the US government, RFA has always been thoroughly proUS and anti-China, with extremely biased wording and reporting focus. It has long used the guise of “freedom of the press,” aiming to oppose China and harm Hong Kong, Jacky Ko Chung-kit, a 45-year-old Hong Kong online opinion leader, told the Global Times on Sunday.

“The fact that it has managed to survive until now is indeed a ‘miracle,’ and as the saying goes, ‘An old woman hurries only when something is amiss.’ If it is not a ‘US proxy,’ why the rush to leave after the enactment of the ordinance,” Ko asked.