Opinion | Freedoms are being compromised in Hong Kong, why can’t Carrie Lam just own up to that?

It doesn’t matter how many times Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor repeats herself. The same goes for her top aides. Saying over and over again Hong Kong is as free as it ever was doesn’t make it true. There is now a tightening noose around our freedom. 

We all know this, even the Beijing loyalists. The only difference is that they choose to remain silent. If our freedom isn’t under attack, why did Japanese reporters feel the need to bombard Lam with questions about it during her recent Tokyo visit?

If we still had the exact same rights as before, would Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung need to reassure a sceptical UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this month? Would Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu have to insist the entry ban on journalist Victor Mallet had nothing to do with press freedom?

It had everything to do with media freedom. That’s why Japanese journalists grilled Lam. That’s why Cheung had to spin a story in front of the global human rights community. And that’s why Tai Kwun director Timothy Calnin had to second-guess what Beijing would think of the heritage site hosting dissident writer Ma Jian as part of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival.