It says the march is triggered by recent events such as the sacking of radio host and long-time government critic Li Wei-ling by Commercial Radio and the reassignment of Chinese-language daily 's respected chief editor following the appointment of a Malaysian journalist as principal executive editor. These events, they say, raise alarms about self-censorship and press freedom that should concern everyone. I agree they are of public concern. The only problem is that the two cases the association has cited fall under the "he says, she says" category, stories that are full of rumours, unsubstantiated accusations and speculation; what they are really short on are facts.

I love Li's response to questions raised at City Forum about the lack of evidence in her accusations that the Leung Chun-ying administration was responsible for her sacking because of her anti-government criticism.

"I am the witness," she said. In other words, we just have to take her word for it. I bet some in the audience must wonder if she was going to add she was the judge, prosecutor and jury as well. If that was the kind of intellectual content she brought to her show, I say the only crime the radio station has committed was to have tolerated her in the spotlight for so long.

As for , perhaps its owners really are trying to compromise its independence. But until there is evidence of that, I see nothing wrong with bringing in experienced journalists from outside Hong Kong. It should even be encouraged given the city's rising parochialism.