IFJ Press Freedom in China Campaign Bulletin

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IFJ Press Freedom in China Campaign Bulletin
July 8, 2012

To IFJ Asia-Pacific affiliates and friends,

Welcome to IFJ Asia-Pacific’s monthly Press Freedom in China Campaign e-bulletin. The next bulletin will be sent on August 8, 2012, and contributions are most welcome.

To contribute news or information, email ifj@ifj-asia.org. To visit the IFJ’s China Campaign page, go to www.ifj.org.

Please distribute this bulletin widely among colleagues in the media.

1) Hong Kong Journalist detained after raising sensitive question
2) Editor-in-Chief of South China Morning Post suspected of self-censorship
3) Press Freedom in Hong Kong is at stake
4) Mainland journalist harassed by Mainland security officer in Hong Kong
5) Mainland journalist suspended for raising corruption queries
6) Restrictive orders issued
7) Judicial officer used the excuse of “state secrets” to curb media
8) Overseas website blocked after published Vice-President Xi’s extended family assets

1) Hong Kong Journalist detained after raising sensitive question

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the detaining by Hong Kong Police of Rex Hong Yiu-Ting, journalist for Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily on June 30, after asking Chinese President Hu Jintao a question about the Tiananmen Square massacre during his official visit to Hong Kong to mark 15 years since the territory’s handover to China and to oversee the inauguration ceremony of the fourth term of Hong Kong’s Government. Hong was detained by police with an excuse of he spoke too loudly and causing disturbance. The action of police sparked outrage from media, academics and politicians. On July 3, Hung Hak-Wai, Police Director of Operations, met with Hong Kong’s three major journalists associations and denied any intention to suppress press freedom. However, he expressed regret about the incident and blamed an inspector at the scene for exercising poor judgment. Cheung Kim-Hung, the Editor-in-Chief of Apple Daily, will file a civil claim against the police and lodge a complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Council.

http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-condemns-detention-of-journalist-by-hong-kong-police

2) Editor-in-Chief of South China Morning Post suspected of self-censorship

The independence of Hong Kong’s longest-running English newspaper, the South China Morning Post, is under fire after becoming aware of reports of censorship and the discontinuation of its contracts with a number of experienced foreign journalists. According to reports by the Wall Street Journal and Apple Daily, Wang Xiangwei, Editor-in-Chief of the South China Morning Post and Member of the Jilin Province Political Consultative Conference of China, is suspected of ordering the censorship of a story on the suspicious death of Tiananmen dissident Li Wangyang in Hunan hospital on June 6, 2012. The reports claim that Wang directed staff to cover the story as briefly as possible, rather than giving the story the extensive coverage undertaken by other media outlets. When the paper’s sub-editor, Alex Price, emailed Wang for an explanation, Wang is alleged to have replied, “I don’t have to explain to you anything. I made the decision and I stand by it. If you don’t like it, you know what to do.” In other worrying news, the South China Morning Post has recently failed to renew the contracts of a number of its most experienced foreign journalists including an accomplished journalist, Paul Mooney, who was recently celebrated with a number of Human Rights Press Awards in Hong Kong, was informed by Wang that his contract will not be renewed when it expires in September. The IFJ calls for Robet Kuok, the Malaysian majority shareholder of the South China Morning Post, to investigate the claims of political censorship at the paper and also call for Wang Xiangwei to resign his membership of the Jilin Province Political Consultative Conference of China, which raises questions as to his independence and impartiality.

http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/hong-kongs-south-china-morning-post-accused-of-censorship

3) Press Freedom in Hong Kong is at stake

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliate the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HJKA) in expressing disappointment at the increase in self-censorship by media revealed in a recent media survey and moves by the government of Hong Kong to tighten flows of information and news coverage. On June 24, the HJKA released a press freedom survey of 663 respondents, indicating a growing prevalence of censorship in the reporting activities of Hong Kong’s media. The most worrying result is that the report from the HKJA noted that 92.7% of media personnel said that they believe press freedom in Hong Kong is reducing due to the tightening of local government controls. Other factors nominated by respondents include self-censorship within the industry (71%), interference by the Chinese Liaison Office in Hong Kong (67.5%) and interference by the business sector and conglomerates (35.9%). Respondents were able to nominate multiple choices in their responses. At the same time, the survey also revealed that 60 percent of the respondents thought that press freedom would be restricted to a greater extent during the new Chief Executive of Hong Kong Leung Chun-Ying’s administration. In the 2012 annual report, HKJA calls on Leung to refrain from legislating national security laws until universal suffrage is in place, improve the methods of disseminating breaking news and enact the law of access to information and archives law.

http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/hong-kong-press-freedom-survey-reveals-increasing-censorship

4) Mainland journalist harassed by Mainland security officer in Hong Kong

Wen Yunchao, the pen name of Bei Feng, a journalist for Hong Kong-based electronic magazine iSun Affairs, was harassed by security officers in Mainland. In a report on Radio and Television of Hong Kong, he disclosed that he and his parents who are still living in Mainland have been harassed by security officers in China. After Li Wangyang, the union activist of Tiananmen Square massacre, died mysteriously, Wen organized a co-signed petition and called for authorities to investigate the case. Another Mainland journalist told IFJ that quite a number of Mainland journalists, who are still holding a working visa in Hong Kong or other areas and have family members in China, are frequently visited by some Mainlanders who do not disclose their true identities. The aim of their visits are alleged to be to encourage self-censorship, and dissuade journalists from ‘causing trouble’ or writing negative stories about China.

5) Mainland journalist suspended for raising corruption queries

The IFJ is deeply concerned by the management of the Xi’an Evening Newspaper’s decision to suspend one of its journalists, Shi Junrong, after he reported on corruption allegations made against the Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party for the township of Dali, in China’s northern Sha’anxi province on June 30. In Shi’s report on 26 June, he queried how Dali’s Secretary can afford to smoke high-end cigarettes, at a cost of 1,000 Chinese Yuan (approximately USD 158) per carton, given their official monthly salary is understood to be quite low. Shi contacted the secretary and he claimed that the cigarettes belonged to his ‘comrade’. Four days later, the newspaper suspended Shi from duty, with the explanation that he did not interview all of the people involved in the story. IFJ calls for the newspaper to immediately revoke the decision to suspend Shi immediately, and urges the All Chinese Journalists Association to fulfil their duties to investigate the case and to protect the rights and interests of China’s media personnel.

http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/journalist-in-north-china-suspended-for-raising-corruption-queries

6) Restrictive orders issued

With the expected leadership change of the Chinese Communist Party due to take place during the 18th Politburo Standing Committee, China’s authorities have, as usual, demanded media strictly rely on Xinhua or other government mouth-piece media when reporting on sensitive stories or incidents. A mainland journalist told IFJ that cases involving land evictions, food and product safety and others spontaneous incidents were forbidden from independent reporting. As such, two recent major incidents were reported only on officially sanctioned media. On June 29, six suspected hijackers were reportedly attempted to hijack a plane from Hotan to Urumqi in Xinjiang province. Two out of the six suspects were reported to have died during the incident, after they fought with passengers and air crew. The other two suspects were injured. According to a report by government mouthpiece Global Times, the suspects attempted to ignite explosives in the airplane. However, no media independently reported the case.

Similarly, on June 29, thousands of people in Shifang, Sichuan province protested against the decision by the local government to allow a heavy metal refinery to be built, putting the health of local people at risk. Although the local government ordered the factory to stop construction, and promised that the government would supervise any future construction, this did not address public anxiety. Thousands of people gathered in front of the local government offices. Military forces were sent to manage the protestors, with tear gas used to try to disperse the public. Information from internet sources said many people were injured and at least one people died during the riot. However, no official statement has verified the information and no independent media reporting was conducted.

7) Judicial officer used the excuse of “state secrets” to curb media

The judiciary system in Longgang District, Shenzhen, is under suspicion after a drink driving case was classified as a “state secret” in order to prevent the press from reading the judgement. On June 18, China Youth Daily newspaper reported that it’s journalist was denied access to a judgement which involved an officer of a community office in Longgang District who was charged with drink driving. The report said the officer of the court claimed that part of the judgment involved a “state secret” which made it unsuitable for release to the public. However, the officer did not elaborate further. According to Chinese law, any case except those involving state secrets should be trialled in an open court. The public is allowed to attend and read the judgment. In September 2011 the excuse of ‘state secrets’ was used by an officer of a government department to harass and intimidate a Chinese journalist investigating the arrest of a civil servant in Luoyang, in China’s eastern Henan province. The IFJ urges Wu Aiying, Minister of Justice, to investigate this latest case and ensure all press can access to court information according to the law.

8) Overseas website blocked after published Vice-President Xi’s extended family assets

An official website of the financial news organisation Bloomberg was blocked within China by the country’s authorities in apparent retaliation for the publication of an article which referred to the assets of the relatives of China’s Vice-President Xi Jinping. On June 29, an article with the title “Xi Jinping Millionaire Relations Reveal Fortunes Of Elite” was published on Bloomberg’s website. The report revealed that Xi’s extended family have millions of dollars of assets. Although the article clearly states that there is no indication that any of assets are owned by Xi or his immediate family, Bloomberg’s official website and the Business Week were blocked by China’s authorities immediately following the article’s publication. “The overreaction of China’s authorities in this case reveals that the understanding of press freedom by China’s leaders still has a lot of room for improvement”, IFJ Asia-Pacific Office said. “Although Xi is widely tipped to become the next President of China, the media should not be prevented for reporting on matters directly or indirectly related to him or his family”. IFJ urges China’s authorities to lift the blocking of the Bloomberg and Business Week websites, and ensure that other websites are allowed to publish freely without fear of censorship.

http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/website-blocked-for-reporting-the-family-assets-of-chinas-vice-president

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