Press freedom at growing risk, journalists warn
Attacks on Hong Kong's long-standing press freedoms reached unprecedented levels last year, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) says, while the landscape for media on the mainland became increasingly hostile.
Those were the findings of the IFJ's annual report on press freedom in China, published yesterday.
'The situation is getting worse,' said Serenade Woo Lai-wan, Asia-Pacific project manager for the IFJ.
Maisy Lo, convener of the press freedom committee for the Hong Kong Journalists Association, said: 'Under 'one country two systems', authorities [in Beijing] are putting a greater emphasis on 'one country'.
'The core values [of Hong Kong] are not being respected.'
According to the report, 'China's New Clampdown: Press Freedom in China 2011', more Hong Kong reporters are being intimidated, detained and arrested while doing their job.
The report cites the frustrations of local reporters covering Vice-Premier Li Keqiang's three-day visit in August. Reporters complained of being pushed, inhibited in their reporting or being monitored by plain-clothes security officers.
RTHK reporter Emily Chan reveals in the report how she was pushed and detained by a policewoman and security agents while she tried to film Li's visit to Laguna City in Kwun Tong.
'In the second half of 2011, journalists in Hong Kong experienced the biggest restriction from the local government since the 1997 handover,' the report said.
However, a government spokesman said it was firmly committed to 'protecting the freedom of speech and of the press, and maintaining an environment in which a free and active press can operate under minimum regulation'.
Maisy Lo said media workers were being arrested without valid reason.
On the mainland, reporters faced another difficult year, particularly because of the authorities' fear of a wave of protests inspired by the uprising in the Middle East and North Africa. At least 16 mainland journalists were forced out of their jobs under pressure from the authorities.
Foreign reporters on the mainland also face increased harassment, particularly when covering calls for a 'jasmine spring' uprising and the detention of blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng .
'China is a country where there is generally little violence towards foreign reporters,' said Harold Thibault, Shanghai correspondent for the French newspaper Le Monde. He attended a small 'jasmine' protest in February at People's Square in Shanghai.
'That day, there were a lot of police and I found that they behaved in a very rough way,' he said.
In Beijing, police briefly detained more than a dozen foreign journalists covering a similar protest. A video reporter for Bloomberg was kicked and pushed.
The IFJ will send the report to all the journalists' associations in China and to the State Council.
