An incident on Wednesday, wherein a consultant for Reporters With out Borders (RSF) was denied permission to enter Hong Kong to look at the nationwide safety trial of political and media determine Jimmy Lai, is yet one more illustration of the precipitous decline of media freedom in that territory. One other RSF worker was allowed to enter. The episode comes on the heels of nationwide safety laws associated to Article 23which threatens to additional curtail civil liberties and press freedoms by criminalizing routine reporting, analysis, and advocacy work. The laws was fast-tracked at Beijing’s behestwith little or no room for public debate. Following its passage, RFA introduced it was shutting its Hong Kong bureau on account of considerations in regards to the security of its employeesand some bookstores have determined to shut somewhat than danger prosecution beneath the brand new legislation. Hong Kong presently ranks one hundred and fortieth among the many 180 nations and territories included in RSF’s 2023 World Press Freedom Indexhaving plummeted from 18th place simply twenty years in the past. China ranks 179th out of 180.
In an announcement describing her ordeal on the Hong Kong airport, RSF Asia-Pacific Bureau Advocacy Officer Aleksandra Bielakowska wrote that it “demonstrates how a lot the Hong Kong authorities worry NGO employees and human rights defenders who search to report on the authoritarian local weather that has taken maintain within the territory that was as soon as a bastion of press freedom.”
At the moment’s CDT Quote of the Day comes from RSF Director of Campaigns Rebecca Vincent, who issued the next assertion following her colleague’s detention and deportation:
“We’re appalled by this unacceptable remedy of our colleague, who was merely making an attempt to do her job on behalf of Reporters With out Borders (RSF). We’ve got by no means skilled such blatant efforts by authorities to evade scrutiny of courtroom proceedings in any nation, which additional highlights the ludicrous nature of the case in opposition to Jimmy Lai, and the dire erosion of press freedom and the rule of legislation in Hong Kong. We demand a direct clarification from the Hong Kong Particular Administrative Area and a assure that our representatives can return to the territory safely to observe the rest of Lai’s trial, which can not happen in darkness. The world should know what is occurring in Hong Kong, which has implications for international press freedom.” [Source]
The New York Occasions’ David Pierson reported on RSF’s function in observing Lai’s trialand on how the nationwide safety legislation underlies present and upcoming trials of journalists in Hong Kong:
Ms. Bielakowska, a Polish nationwide [and Taipei-based advocacy officer for RSF]was touring with a colleague, [RSF’s] Asia-Pacific bureau director, Cédric Alviani. Mr. Alviani was allowed to enter Hong Kong with out incident however returned to Taiwan in a while Monday.
The 2 had deliberate to satisfy with journalists and monitor the nationwide safety trial of a media govt, Jimmy Lai, an ardent authorities critic and the proprietor of the now-shuttered Apple Each day newspaper. Ms. Bielakowska visited Hong Kong final December to attend the opening of Mr. Lai’s trial.
The episode comes lower than a month after Hong Kong launched new nationwide safety legal guidelines, recognized collectively as Article 23 laws, that partially goal overseas interference and heighten the dangers for journalists who report critically on the federal government.
The native laws was enacted 4 years after China imposed its personal nationwide safety legislation on Hong Kong following widespread pro-democracy protests, a measure that has stifled dissent and led to the closure of a number of impartial media organizations.
Senior editors from a kind of retailers, Stand Information, are on trial for publishing what the authorities have referred to as seditious materials. A verdict is anticipate later this month. [Source]
In an article on Bielakowska’s expulsion, the Hong Kong Free Press famous that it was “the primary time an RSF staffer has been denied entry to the territory.” The South China Morning Submit reported on the response from Lee Williamson, President of the International Correspondents’ Membership Hong Kong, who mentioned, “The information is alarming. […] We’re presently making an attempt to raised perceive what occurred and why Ms Bielakowska was denied entry to Hong Kong.” Hong Kong’s immigration division has not commented on the incident, simply because it didn’t remark final July, when Japan Occasions journalist Yoshiaki Ogawa was denied entry to Hong Kong and despatched again to Tokyo.
Not that this actuality wanted extra proof, however #HongKong authorities blocking entry of @RSF_en immediately not an awesome look. https://t.co/xZt1dcUeMd
— Sophie Richardson (@SophieDRich) April 10, 2024
