Opinion | Hong Kong's media bosses acting more like lapdogs than watchdogs
Albert Cheng says the unwillingness of executives to challenge leaders' views on political reform merely reinforces self-censorship fears
Hong Kong reporters have never been known to shy away from confronting those in power. But when their bosses encountered a top Communist official last week, the situation was merely an exercise in timidity.
The Chinese authorities invited three media bodies to assemble a delegation to visit Beijing. The Hong Kong Federation of Journalists, the Hong Kong News Executives' Association, and the Newspaper Society of Hong Kong were dutifully represented. The more militant Hong Kong Journalists Association, which represents beat reporters, was excluded.
More than 20 senior editors and executives from both print and electronic media outlets joined the trip. Conspicuously absent was anyone from Apple Daily and the Oriental Daily News. Vice-President Li Yuanchao and Wang Guangya , director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, received the group.
The last time a similar delegation was given such special treatment was in 2003, when Politburo Standing Committee member Li Changchun reminded news representatives from the city of their "social responsibilities" in the wake of the massive protest march against Tung Chee-hwa, who was chief executive at the time. The latest visit again appears to have been a reminder to the local media of what is expected of them in times of hyper political sensitivity.
The visit came after a delegation from the Legislative Council visited Shanghai. It was arranged within weeks of the 25th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square military crackdown on June 4, and close to the end of the first round of public consultation on political reform. It also came as student organisers of the Occupy Central protest suggested they might move it to as early as July 1.
Li told the media executives during a closed-door session that Occupy Central was unlawful and would delay universal suffrage and wreck Hong Kong's prosperity and stability. He called on Hong Kong's media to report on the benefits brought by the mainland's economic development in an "objective, fair, balanced and rational" manner. Wang went a step further to declare that, if necessary, Beijing could provide assistance to quell Occupy Central.
The New York Times described Li's comments as "the bluntest warning yet from a Chinese Communist Party leader about possible protests in Hong Kong's financial district".