In the past “World Press Freedom Day”, the Hong Kong Journalists Association published the “Press Freedom Index”, which showed that the rating of Hong Kong journalists hit an eight-year low. The concerns of Hong Kong journalists are not empty, in addition to the potential risks of the Hong Kong National Security Law, the Hong Kong government has even threatened to enact a “fake news law”. The public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong, which has always been outspoken in the past, has recently experienced an unprecedented crackdown, with a large number of videos of its former programs being taken down from its oil tube and Facebook channels, which has been questioned by outsiders as a “modern version of book burning”.
The Hong Kong government has recently made frequent announcements, threatening to enact a “fake news law”. In a press conference on Tuesday (4), Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam was asked about the matter, said the government is currently studying foreign practices, reiterating that there is no legislative timetable.
The Hong Kong government has proposed a “fake news law” How to define it?
Mrs. Lam said, “A fake news law requires a great deal of research, particularly on how foreign governments respond to those increasingly worrying trends, including the spread of inaccurate messages, misinformation, hate speech and rumors on social media.”
Carrie Lam said it is not only about “fake news”, but also about privacy issues, describing the harm caused to many people, the government will take the problem seriously.
Hong Kong Journalists Association Chairman Yeung Kin-hing expressed concern that once the government enacts the “fake news law”, the government will rule on what constitutes “fake news” and “weaponize” the law. For example, the government may consider a certain way of handling news “unbalanced”, and then further deduce that the report is inaccurate. This may make the industry’s self-censorship problem more serious, and even affect the daily operation of the media.
RTHK deletes old videos from social media platforms
On the other hand, as the only public broadcaster in Hong Kong, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), which has been monitoring the government’s governance in the past, is experiencing an unprecedented crackdown since the parachuting of politician Lee Pak-chuen, who has no media experience, as station manager. Following a number of royal programs were suddenly pulled up before broadcast and asked to withdraw from major news awards, the hand of consolidation has also reached its oil tube and Facebook channel of old videos.
Radio Television Hong Kong from Monday (3) afternoon, one after another to delete its oil tube and Facebook and other platforms on the shelves more than a year of video. The award-winning program “Clang Collection” has become the key target of the cleaning, and all its videos from September 2019 to April 2020 have been removed from the shelves, many of which involve police violence and anti-sending campaign reports.
Last year, the Commissioner of Police repeatedly complained about the suspension of the satirical current affairs program “Headline News”, the program discussing Hong Kong politics “Proceedings”, the English current affairs program “The Pulse (pulse)”, and even the discussion of literature, history and philosophy of the talk show “five nights of lectures”, none of them were spared. The Pulse was sniped by the pro-Beijing camp last March after reporter Susanna Tang asked the WHO about Taiwan’s membership. The journalist resigned last month.
Cai Yuling: The purge of history begins at Radio Television Hong Kong
The former editorial director of “Clanging Collection”, who was convicted by the court for “false statement” in the July 21, 2019, indiscriminate attack on Yelang, said on Facebook that “the delete button has been activated and the history of The cleansing of history has started in Radio Television Hong Kong, or slowly extended to other levels”.
This also made many Hong Kong people feel uneasy, denouncing the practice as a “modern version of book burning”, and spontaneously backing up RTHK’s program videos. Some netizens even backed up all the programs of “Clang Collection” from 2016 to 2020 and circulated them widely on the Internet, saying that “history cannot be deleted”.
Academics: RTHK is performing a “historical purge”
The University of Hong Kong Center for Journalism and Media Studies Associate Professor Fu Jinghua told the station that the government has set the tone earlier to “reform” Radio Television Hong Kong in a big way. RTHK series of program content and personnel changes, reflecting the Government’s determination to “comprehensive governance” of RTHK, clear away the regime’s thorn in the side, that is, the past has been monitoring the Government’s administration of the program, such as “Clang Collection”, “Viewpoint 31”, etc., and then the introduction of the program produced by the Government Information Service “sing good policy The government has been monitoring the government’s policies, such as “Clanging”, “Viewpoint 31”, etc., and then introduced a program produced by the Government Information Service to “sing good policies”, so that RTHK has become a “government propaganda machine.
Fu Jinghua said: “The new top management came to power, basically to do management, rather than content. There are journalists leaving the front line, there are programs off the air or drawn up. At the same time there is more official government content, basically propaganda, I believe the whole laying out, is to make RTHK become a completely government-controlled organization. Quite public attention, the government has some checks and balances on the program, such as “Clang Collection”, “Viewpoint 31”, “Proceedings” are affected.”
Fu described RTHK as performing a “historical purge” and lamented that this is part of the “authoritarian governance” Hong Kong has experienced.
The RTHK union: the program is the common property of Hong Kong people, why should it be deleted?
RTHK responded by claiming that the deletion of clips that have been on the social media platform for more than a year is only in line with the usual practice of RTHK’s official website, which currently only provides programs from the past 12 months to revisit.
RTHK program production staff union refuted that RTHK’s website only provides the past 12 months of the program to relive, because the server capacity of RTHK is limited, but the social platform does not have this capacity limit, and does not charge RTHK, does not involve any expenditure, so can not be compared with the measures of RTHK website.
The union also said that RTHK, as a public broadcaster, should increase the dissemination of its programs and make good use of public resources, and the use of other platforms can expand the audience base and maximize the cost-effectiveness of public funds. The union stressed that RTHK’s past programs are public resources and the common property of Hong Kong people, and criticism of the management’s actions will make outsiders suspect that the practice has other purposes.
And RTHK union also confirmed that RTHK Assistant Program Director Lee Kwan-ah was not renewed, must leave at the end of this month.
In a government press conference the day after the 7.21 incident in Yuen Long in 2019, Li Junya questioned Hong Kong government officials whether the incident was “a big dragon and phoenix acted by the government, police and the black,” and asked them to “speak human”. The management launched an investigation on this ground.
Recent Comments