<
https://www.cjr.org/first_person/selina-cheng-wall-street-journal-gershkovich-evan-china-hong-kong-apple.php>
"After 2019, as China tightened its grip on Hong Kong and mass protests gripped
the city, police raided the
Apple Daily and
Stand News newsrooms and
prosecuted their top editors with national security crimes. Several smaller
media outlets shut down rather than risk similar treatment.
It was the beginning of a chill for journalists.
First as a local news reporter, and later at the
Wall Street Journal, I
witnessed the trials and sentencing of almost twenty journalists, citizen
reporters, editors, and commentators.
Daily life for the remaining reporters fell into a new rhythm. Slow. Careful.
Some reporters and editors from shuttered newsrooms started new media ventures,
YouTube channels, and podcasts. Many steered clear of the city’s politics and
focused instead on pop culture or lifestyle reporting.
Even at news publications, there were vastly fewer revelatory stories on
sensitive political issues and investigations on abuses of public power.
Journalists shifted uncomfortably in their seats when they heard story ideas
they felt could touch a nerve in the government. I saw editors press for
extra-solid sourcing in anticipation of government condemnation.
When Taiwan held a presidential election—a sensitive event in China, which
covets the island—reporters murmured about how to handle sound bites and
footage differently depending on whether Beijing’s preferred candidate won.
(They didn’t.)
The Hong Kong Journalists Association became an important defense against the
erosion of an effective press—and a frequent target for the ire of the Chinese
government.
The association advocates the rights and interests of journalists—it issues a
widely read annual index on the state of press freedom and works against
legislation that would further erode it. It financially supports journalists
who are in legal trouble. It is fifty-six years old, which makes it older than
the government it so often critiques (which was formed in 1997 when the
governance of Hong Kong was passed from Britain to China)."
Via
Garbage Day: Coconutpilled and contextmaxxing
https://www.garbageday.email/p/coconutpilled-contextmaxxing
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
