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Andy Ho

Hong Kong journalists are faced with an unprecedented choice for the next leader to guide their trade union through a politically sensitive period after the handover.

 The chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) has been uncontested since the body was founded in 1968.

 Now, for the first time in 29 years, two journalists on the political beat have locked horns for the honorary position.

 The two candidates are incumbent Mak Yin-ting and her deputy, Carol Lai Pui-yee. Mak, a member of the RTHK news team, covers Sino-Hong Kong politics. Lai, a former political editor of Ming Pao, is now freelancing.

 A campaign debate this weekend at the HKJA office at Lockhart Road will see the two aspirants attempt to explain their platforms.

 Both have named the safeguarding of free speech as a major task ahead. The association, whose membership has recently expanded by about 10 per cent to 648, is the most broadly-based local journalists' trade union.

 It has been concerned about Article 23 of the Basic Law under which the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region authorities are expected to come up with a set of local laws soon to prohibit subversion, sedition, secession and theft of state secrets.

 The HKJA is worried that a conservative enforcement of the article could result in severe restraints on the freedom of expression in general, and the freedom of the press in particular.

 Few would question the body's motives in its efforts in establishing a liberal public sphere for open and informed debates of issues of social concern. But union leaders might have lost sight of the reality that public confidence in the profession has been on the wane.

 Opinion surveys conducted by the University of Hong Kong's Social Sciences Research Centre since late 1993 indicate residents have been fairly satisfied with broadcast news media. However, the same cannot be said about their print counterparts.

 The satisfaction rates for television newscasts ranged from 63.8 per cent to 72.8 per cent between December 1993 and April this year. The rates for radio news bulletins were slightly lower, fluctuating between 47.4 to 56.0 per cent over the same period.

 But paper-based publications have disappointed respondents. Only 44.6 per cent of the respondents indicated in the latest study that they found the performance of the newspapers satisfactory.

   The local print media have been under attack on various fronts. Journalistic ethics and editorial independence, or the lack thereof, have been factors. But there are many other lesser concerns on the minds of the reading public.

 A parent, for instance, recently called a Commercial Radio phone-in programme focusing on the performance of the mass media to complain about the Chinese-language dailies. Girlie pictures aside, she was concerned about the decline in the newspapers' language standard.

 The mother was so worried about the possible bad influence on her children that she had discouraged them from reading what she regarded as vulgar language in the papers.

 Even the English-language dailies are not immune to such criticism. Writing as a father, a Ming Pao columnist was unhappy with the South China Morning Post's use of English. Heung Shu-fai, who used to manage Ming Pao, Sing Tao Daily News and the defunct Wah Kiu Yat Pao, held that the Post used to maintain higher language standards. The current state of affairs, he suggested, was like 'milk which has turned sour'.

 Meanwhile, a man calling himself an aviation enthusiast felt so strongly about another alleged error he rang RTHK's breakfast talk show to complain the Post had mistaken a Boeing 747 for an A330 Airbus in a photo caption.

 Others are upset by what they see as a lack of objectivity in news reports generally. Reporters have apparently become assertive in their writing by injecting their personal feelings into their stories.

 The front page splash of Ming Pao on April 29 offered a case in point. The daily, which is widely regarded as a paper for the intellectual, reported on a lorry driver who was out of a job after losing his driving licence. He had been stripped of nine points for not observing the traffic light while he was riding a bicycle.

 The incident was first raised in a morning radio talk-back programme. It had subsequently been picked up by ATV's infotainment show, before being recycled by Ming Pao. What is disturbing is the way the daily played up the story.

 Complaints like these seem to be on the rise.

 Many of the readers' criticisms may simply be biased and based on misconceptions. But even if this is the case, it only proves the print media as a whole is suffering from a serious image problem. There is, at the very least, a prima facie case for journalists to answer.



Media under fire