UCA News: 'World cannot ignore the latest attack on Hong Kong's rights', Benedict Rogers
Robust sanctions are needed to show China that its silencing of all dissent has consequences
The police raid on Stand News in Hong Kong in the early hours of yesterday morning, and the media outlet’s subsequent forced closure, is yet another nail in the coffin of Hong Kong’s press freedom. Indeed, one could argue that if Apple Daily’s closure six months ago was the death of press freedom in the city, the assault on Stand News is its burial.
In scenes reminiscent of the attacks on Apple Daily, over 200 national security police raided Stand News and seized boxes of documents, computers, telephones and other materials. At the same time, the publication’s assets were frozen and seven individuals were arrested on suspicion of “conspiracy to publish seditious publications.”
Among those arrested were several journalists and editors, and the popular singer Denise Ho and prominent lawyer Margaret Ng, who had both previously served on the media outlet’s board. Police also searched the home of Stand News’ news editor Ronson Chan, who is head of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, and took him in for questioning.
Stand News was Hong Kong’s only significant remaining Chinese-language, independent, pro-democracy news outlet. Its closure signals that the regime in Beijing will no longer tolerate any form of dissent, criticism or scrutiny in Hong Kong, even though the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, guarantees press freedom.
The Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong described the arrests as “a further blow to press freedom in Hong Kong” which will “continue to chill the media environment in the city following a difficult year for the city’s news outlets.” Steven Butler, Asia director at the Committee to Protect Journalists, said it was “an open assault on Hong Kong’s already tattered press freedom as China steps up direct control over the former colony.”
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was “alarmed” by the continuing “crackdown on civic space,” including the assault on Stand News. And politicians around the world, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and Taiwan, condemned the arrests. Britain’s shadow foreign secretary, Labour MP David Lammy, described the episode as “a blatant attack on Hong Kong’s independent media and yet another attempt to silence democratic dissent.”
Yesterday was the latest episode in the rapid dismantling of Hong Kong’s freedoms, human rights, rule of law and autonomy
Having begun my career as both a journalist and a human rights activist in Hong Kong just after the handover in 1997, this is heart-breaking for me to see. For the five years in which I lived and worked in the city, I experienced a vibrant, diverse, energetic and open media environment. The publications I worked on criticised those in government and public life without fear or favour.
As the leader writer on the Hong Kong iMail — a now defunct English-language newspaper which prided itself in being independent and critical of the regime — I wrote editorials which the Hong Kong and Beijing governments at the time must have loathed. But apart from the occasional complaint from the then secretary for security Regina Ip, which my editors just ignored, we never had any serious threat to press freedom. There were some early warning signs of problems to come, but they were mainly as a result of self-censorship by newspaper proprietors eager to ingratiate themselves with Beijing, not direct interference by Beijing.
Today, the landscape is entirely different. In language straight out of the Chinese Communist Party’s dictionary, Chief Secretary John Lee — number two in the Hong Kong government — attacked journalists who “wear a false coat of media workers” and “abuse journalism as a tool to endanger national security” as “evil elements,” “bad apples” and “black sheep” that “damage and pollute press freedom.”
Well, I tell you something: if that’s the definition of a journalist, then I am proud to say that I began my career as a “bad apple,” a “black sheep” and an “evil element” in Hong Kong and I stand by my fellow bad apples and black sheep and so-called evil elements with deep admiration for their courage and commitment. Journalism is not a crime, but in Hong Kong the Chinese regime is turning it into one.
Will foreign correspondents in Hong Kong be targeted? Already a number have had their work visas rejected
Yesterday was the latest episode in the rapid dismantling of Hong Kong’s freedoms, human rights, rule of law and autonomy. In terms of the assault on press freedom, it is the latest chapter, following not only the killing of Apple Daily but the defenestration of Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), turning the respected public service broadcaster into a local version of China’s CCTV or CGTN, canning provocative programmes, culling investigative reporting, axing political discussion shows and reshaping it into a propaganda outlet for the regime.
The question now is: who next? Will foreign correspondents in Hong Kong be targeted? Already a number have had their work visas rejected. Will they now face harassment and threats, as in mainland China?
When I lived in Hong Kong, I was an active member of the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC). To this day I have an FCC Reporters Notebook, which I am using now, appropriately but poignantly, to take notes for a new book I am writing on human rights in China and a new report on threats to press freedom in Hong Kong. The day may not be far off when such a notebook becomes in itself a dangerous, subversive, illegal item in Hong Kong. Notepaper is dangerous in the eyes of dictators because on it you can write ideas and facts that they may not like.
So what should the democratic world do in response? Three things.
First, it must condemn loudly, clearly and repeatedly the attack on Stand News, the arrest of the seven individuals, and the assault on press freedom in Hong Kong.
Second, democracies must coordinate an effort to demand the release of the seven who were arrested. To arrest journalists, a leading internationally renowned barrister and a popular Canto-pop singer on such flagrantly political charges is an outrage. Governments, journalists, lawyers, artists and organisations that represent them must speak out for Margaret Ng, Denise Ho and the Stand News journalists in the same way that tennis stars united in outcry at the disappearance of Peng Shuai. And we must not stop demanding their release until they are free.
So democracies, if we still believe in press freedom and other basic human rights, must unite and coordinate robust, targeted sanctions
But third, it is time that the regime in Beijing and its quisling henchmen in Hong Kong were made to pay the consequences for destroying Hong Kong’s liberties and way of life. The reason incidents such as the attack on Stand News continue to happen is that, so far, the regime has been allowed to perpetrate such violations with impunity.
Apart from the United States, no government has placed sanctions on the Chinese and Hong Kong governments for blatant and repeated breaches of the international treaty, the Sino-British Joint Declaration, registered at the United Nations, under which China is obligated to respect and uphold Hong Kong’s freedoms at least until 2047. Less than halfway through the 50-year period from the handover, Beijing is in permanent breach of this treaty, not to mention international human rights obligations. This cannot go on.
This is not a regime that respects statements alone, although we must continue to speak out. But it is a regime that only understands the language of strength and action. So democracies, if we still believe in press freedom and other basic human rights, must unite and coordinate robust, targeted sanctions to make it clear that the assault on Hong Kong is unacceptable. We must say — not only with words but also with actions — Free Margaret Ng. Free Denise Ho. Free Stand News. Free Hong Kong. And there is a high price to pay if you don’t.
* Benedict Rogers is a human rights activist and writer. He is the co-founder and chief executive of Hong Kong Watch, senior analyst for East Asia at the international human rights organisation CSW, co-founder and deputy chair of the UK Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, a member of the advisory group of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) and a board member of the Stop Uyghur Genocide Campaign. He is the author of six books, including three books about Myanmar, especially his latest, “Burma: A Nation at the Crossroads”. His faith journey is told in his book “From Burma to Rome: A Journey into the Catholic Church” (Gracewing, 2015).
This article was published on UCA News on 30 December 2021.