THE US STATE Department's annual report on human rights contains interesting references to freedom of the press in Hong Kong, and to the South China Morning Post's own reporting of events in mainland China.
The State Department is generally positive, acknowledging that the press in Hong Kong is free and that the media has been outspoken in defending civil liberties. It notes that the media reports numerous viewpoints, including stories and opinions critical of the SAR and Chinese governments and statements by leading Chinese dissidents, pro-independence Taiwan supporters and activists.
It also points out that the law provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government generally respects this right in practice. So far so good.
The report then goes on to quote anonymous monitors of press freedom in Hong Kong as saying that some journalists and some media practise a degree of self-censorship, particularly in mainland-related reporting. It says that human rights organisations still regard the departure of this paper's former China editor, Willy Lam, more than a year ago as an example of media self-censorship, and comments that the Post covers internal Chinese politics much less than it did before.
The State Department and the various human rights organisations and media monitors it cites are entitled to their views, which we as a newspaper are happy to report (in the same way that we report a wide variety of views) for our readers' benefit.
But I am puzzled by these allegations. Self-censorship is an easy charge to make, and a cheap way of slinging mud at a newspaper. It implies that even though there is no formal censorship, reporters and editors at the Post have certain no-go areas that they voluntarily restrain themselves from writing about for fear of offending the mainland authorities.
This is an allegation that does great disservice to the many fine journalists at the Post who take professional pride in providing our readers with as complete, fair and unbiased a view as possible of events in Hong Kong, China and the rest of the world.