News Outlet Closed, Authorities Called It Evil

Michael Hedges December 29, 2021 - Follow on Twitter

That authoritarian rulers despise criticism is historical fact. No messages other than official pronouncements are allowed. Alternative views do, however, pop up, often through shifts in media information platforms. Still, the authoritarian mind seeks full compliance to inscribe social cohesion, they say. As these regimes mature attention turns from calculating daily events to reconstructing history.

One of the few remaining Hong Kong news outlets of note, Stand News, closed abruptly, reported Reuters (December 29) and many others. A notice was posted on its website and social media indicating it had immediately ceased publication and all online material, including social media postings, would be removed within 24 hours, reported Hong Kong Free Press (December 29). All employees were terminated as the government froze HK$61 million in bank assets, about US$7.8 million. More 200 national security officers “swept” into the Stand News offices in the early morning hours (local time), reported the BBC (December 29). The closure was announced about six hours later, "Stand News is now stopping operations.”

Cantonese-language Stand News was a free-access independent news portal covering social and political issues in Hong Kong. It succeeded House News in 2014. Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) nominated Stand News for its 2021 Press Freedom Prize (November 9), describing it as “a space where journalists are “independent of companies, shareholders, authorities and political parties.”

Several individuals were detained during or subsequent to the early morning raid, the AP reported seven in total. They included one current and one former editor and employees, former editors, board members and four former board members, including Hong Kong pop music celebrity, pro-democracy activist and Canadian citizen Denise Ho and former Hong Kong lawmaker Margaret Ng, noted South China Morning Post (December 29). Former chief editor Chung Pui-kuen was arrested as well as his wife, former Apple Daily associate publisher Chan Pui-man, already in jail for offences against the state. All were charged with "conspiracy to publish seditious publications,” originally part of the 1938 Hong Kong criminal code.

At the time of the raid on its offices, Stand News posted to social media a video of police entering the home of deputy editor Ronson Chan, reported AP (December 29). Mr. Chan is chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association. He was released after ceding his mobile devices and bank card. "Stand News has always reported news professionally,” said Mr. Chan, quoted by Reuters.

International news outlets continue to refer to Hong Kong as “a semi-autonomous region” as the 1997 agreement between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the United Kingdom (UK) protected certain rights to Hong Kong citizens for fifty years. Included were press and speech freedom and freedom of assembly. By all indications, PRC authorities have grown impatient with independent, critical news reporting. The national security law enacted last year was “imposed” by the PRC. Sedition is not mentioned in the national security law.

"Anybody who attempts to make use of media work as a tool to pursue their political purpose or other interests countering the law, particularly offences that endanger national security, they are the evil element that damage press freedom,” said Hong Kong Chief Secretary John Lee, quoted by Reuters. "We are not targeting reporters,” said national security police chief Steve Li, citing publication of “news and commentary inciting hatred against authorities. We are targeting national security offences.”

Popular independent tabloid Apple Daily closed in June, publishing house Next Digital shuttered shortly thereafter, ordered liquidated. The Hong Kong accounting company charged with that process is negotiating the sale of the Taiwan subsidiary to a Taiwanese buyer. Former publisher Jimmy Lai remains in jail, new charges levied again this week.

Despite all this, media access in Hong Kong remains largely unhindered. Financial institutions, investment bankers and such require an easy flow of reliable information. The Walt Disney Company recently launched the Disney+ streaming service in Hong Kong. An episode of the popular and kinky series The Simpsons was inauspiciously not available. In typical parody, it mentioned the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre as “on this day nothing happened.” Last week (December 24) workers dismantled and removed two Tiananmen Memorials, including the famed Goddess of Democracy sculpture by artist Chen Weiming and the Pillar of Shame statue, from Hong Kong universities. Poof.

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• Hot Topics - Media in Hong Kong

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