Journalists fear ‘end of the line’ for Hong Kong’s free media

BARELY a year after graduating and finding her first job in a newsroom, Samantha, a young Hong Kong journalist, decided to put her dream career on hold and take a job at a fast-food delivery company.

The collapse of her employer, Stand News, after seven senior staff members, including the editor-in-chief, were detained in a dawn raid by police in December, left her disillusioned about the future for media in Hong Kong.

“I can’t lie to myself that life is still carrying on as usual,” Samantha, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, said. “I couldn’t stand working for another news outlet immediately after seeing my editors arrested.”

Since the end of the pro-democracy protests that rocked the city in 2019, Hong Kong’s authorities have relentlessly cracked down on dissenting voices and the city’s once freewheeling media industry has not been spared.

Reporters fear one of the industry’s last impartial bodies, the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), could be singled out next after being asked by the government to legally justify its existence under the draconian new national security law.

Ronson Chan, the body’s chairman, said he was steeling himself for the worst. “I am mentally prepared for more police questioning, or even arrest,” Mr Chan said. HKJA was asked last month to justify how its past activities, including its opposition to the now shelved extradition bill that triggered the 2019 street protests, were consistent with its work as a trade union. The group was given a few weeks to respond and its future now hangs in the balance.

Mr Chan has maintained that the association had always focused on the rights and welfare of journalists. “All we did was proper journalism. We did our job as reporters. I never expected this is how we would end up.”

Under the national security law, the city’s previously fiercely liberal news outlets have fallen, one after another, beginning last summer with Apple Daily, a strident pro-democracy tabloid.

The International Federation of Journalists last month warned independent reporting had been paralysed by the vaguely defined law, with journalists forced to “self-censor”. It added: “For those not professionally willing to do that, it appears to be nearing the end of the line for free and independent media as it has been known in Hong Kong.”

Walter, a senior reporter who worked for Apple Daily, said it was impossible to tell who would be targeted next. A recently proposed law against “fake news,” that could criminalise reporting labelled as disinformation by officials has put journalists further on edge. “These are risks that not everyone is willing to take,” he said.

However, he argued determined journalists should be able to negotiate the new landscape.

Samantha agrees it might be too early to give in. She has now applied for a job at one of the city’s remaining papers. “I know there might be more shutdowns and more arrests,” she said. “As long as there is still some space for us, I still want to report, even though I know it might not be for long.”

‘It appears to be nearing the end of the line for free and independent media as it has been known in Hong Kong’