Happening now in #hongkong: another assault on #pressfreedom, if there is still any.
Referencing the “national security law” the Hong Kong government arrested multiple executives from the last standing pro-democracy printed-newspaper, @appledailyhk, and entered the company’s office for “conducting investigations”.
Photo from @thestandnews
#fuckccp #boycottchina #china #standwithhongkong #newspaper #appledaily #apple #ccp #diyms #english

#PoliceState #PoliticalProsecution
HK Police Arrests More #AppleDaily Editors

On the evening of June 27, 2021, Hong Kong Police arrested one more editor who used to write in the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.

#FungWaiKong, aged 57, was the editor-in-chief of the English news of Apple Daily and a columnist for the Chinese-language edition under thd pen name Lo Fung.

The police accused of him "conspiring to collude with foreign countries or foreign forces to endanger national security". The arrest was made at the airport.

Fung Wai-kong is the seventh employee of the now-closed Apple Daily who was arrested under #NationalSecurityLaw. The founder #JimmyLai, a pro-democracy media tycoon, has been jailed since Janurary 2021.

The 26-year-old Apple Daily was forced to shut down on June 23, 2021 after the police raided the headquarters, arrested 3 editors and 2 executives, and froze the key assets and bank accounts of the newspaper. On the day when the last edition was announced, police arrested one more new commentator.

The Hong Kong Journalists' Association (#HKJA) condemned the police for targeting journalists.

Source: Stand News #Jun27
https://bit.ly/2SAUrgY

#Journalism #PressFreedom #SupportAppleDaily #PoliticalPrisoner

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Related news:

Hongkongers Stay Up Overnight to Buy Apple Daily for One Last Time

https://publielectoral.lat/guardiansofhongkong/30233

Beijing introduces a propaganda department for #HongKong, further eradicating #PressFreedom.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-24/beijing-expands-footprint-in-hong-kong-with-new-departments

#ReportersWithoutBorders and 44-NGO coalition urge Chinese President #XiJinping to release #Covid19 reporter on #hungerstrike

//On September 17, 2021, Reporters Without Borders (#RSF) and a coalition of 44 human rights NGOs urged Chinese President Xi Jinping to exonerate and release Covid-19 reporter #ZhangZhan, who has been on hunger strike since May 2020, for which she was forced-fed.

“Zhang Zhan did not commit any crime but instead courageously risked her life to inform the public on the health crisis. She should never have been arrested, let alone subjected to a harsh prison sentence”, says the head of RSF East Asia bureau, Cédric Alviani, who urges President Xi Jinping to “ensure that Zhang Zhan is released before it’s too late.”//

Source: RSF #Sept17

https://rsf.org/en/news/rsf-and-44-ngo-coalition-urge-chinese-president-xi-jinping-release-covid-19-reporter-hunger-strike

Related news:
https://publielectoral.lat/guardiansofhongkong/28615

#PoliticalProsecution #PressFreedom #Regime #CCPRules

#Irony
CCP State Media Justifies Propaganda on #JournalistsDay as Crackdown on Citizen Journalists Continue

Journalists in China are either part of state-owned propaganda or being imprisoned for criticising the government.

November 8 marks the Journalists’ Day in China. Most state-funded media published articles praising the work done by media workers.

In the party funded People’s Daily, several journalists were interviewed to talk about their work on the ground. Among them, one described their work as a "tribute to the [Chinese Communist] Party's centennial anniversary."

Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the state-funded tabloid Global Times, tweeted that "journalists are part of state-owned propaganda."

Never mentioned on these official media were those independent journalists and citizen journalists who have been imprisoned, detained, or arrested for pursueing truths under the Chinese Communist Party’s (#CCP) rule.

Zhang Zhan, a Chinese citizen journalist and former lawyer, was sentenced in December 2020 to four years in jail for her reporting on CCP’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It has been confirmed that Huang Xueqin, a women's rights activist, and independent journalist, was being arrested.

#PressFreedom #ZhangZhan #HuangXueQin #Propaganda

Source: Stand News; #Nov8
https://www.facebook.com/standnewshk/posts/4718665174885732

Citizen Journalist Zhang Zhan Jailed over Covid-19 Report, Weighing Less Than 40kg on Hunger Strike
Her Family: She may not live long

China citizen journalist Zhang Zhan was sentenced to four years in prison for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" after exposing the epidemic in Wuhan last year. She has been on a hunger strike in prison, and her health is deteriorating.

Her brother, Zhang Ju, recently posted on Twitter that his sister appears to be terminally ill and is worried that she will not be able to survive the winter. The British Embassy in China urges the Chinese authorities to release Zhang Zhan and other detained journalists immediately.

In a series of posts on Twitter on Saturday and Sunday, Zhang Ju revealed his sister Zhang Zhan's latest condition and posted her old photos. "I don't think she can live much longer," he said, adding that Zhang is 177cm tall but weighs less than 40kg now, "if she doesn't make it through the coming cold winter, I hope the world will remember her".

Editor note: "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" is a charge routinely used to suppress dissent, levelling against citizen journalists, human rights lawyers and activists.

#China #Wuhan #ZhangZhan #Prison #HungerStrike #Journalist #PressFreedom #Covid19 #Pandemic #ZhangJu #Twitter #BritishEmbassy

Source: The Stand News #Nov02

https://bit.ly/30529DQ

#PoliticalOppression #PressFreedom
2021 marks a sad milestone for Journalists in HK : Committee to Protect Journalists

In the Committee to Protect Journalists (#CPJ) annual report 2021, it revealed that the number of journalists jailed around the world had set another record in 2021, with #China remains the world’s worst jailer of journalists for the third year in a row, with 50 behind bars. 

As for Hong Kong, it said that 2021 "marked a sad milestone".

"For the first time journalists in the former British colony appear on CPJ’s annual survey of journalists unjustly imprisoned for their work. Eight. Zero to eight in one year."

READ FULL ARTICLE:
https://cpj.org/2021/12/hong-kongs-sad-media-milestone/

RELATED ARTICLE:
https://cpj.org/2021/12/attacks-on-the-press-in-2021/

The number of reporters jailed for their work hit a new global record of 293 in CPJ’s 2021 prison census, up from a revised total of 280 in 2020. Also so far in 2021, at least 24 journalists were killed as a result of their coverage.

#NationalSecurityLaw #FreedomOfSpeech #PressFreedom #JimmyLai #AppleDaily

Source : Committee to Protect Journalists; #Dec9

#Taiwan Condemns Hong Kong Authorities' Crackdown on #StandNews

On December 29, 2021, Taiwan's three major political parties all issued statements in response to Hong Kong Police's crackdown on Stand News, expressing their concern and condemnation.

Taiwan's ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party (#DPP), expressed "indignation and resentment" at the Hong Kong police's flagrant actions, searching media offices and arresting promoters of freedom and democracy. They consider these acts as strangling Hong Kong's freedom of expression and creating a chilling effect among media and public opinion. The DPP calls on the international community and Taiwan to continue observing Hong Kong's development.

The statement by New Power Party (#NPP) calls the actions by Hong Kong's national security police "disproportional", causing serious damage to the freedom of press, and effectively nullifies the rights laid out in the Basic Law: "Hong Kong residents shall have freedom of speech, of the press and of publication; freedom of association, of assembly, of procession and of demonstration; and the right and freedom to form and join trade unions, and to strike."

#Kuomintang, Taiwan's current opposition party, expressed deep concern that the authorities shut down a media company that spoke up for different public opinions and upheld principles of democracy, freedom, and human rights. They called on Chinese authorities to respect the younger generation's view of democratic values and freedom of speech. As Hong Kong had been the revolutionary headquarter of Dr Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of modern China, Hong Kong's democracy and freedom are deeply tied to the pursuit of democracy and freedom on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Source: Citizen News; Liberty Times #Dec29
https://www.facebook.com/366243453719070/posts/1618965958446807/

https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/breakingnews/3784313

#Media #PoliticalOppression #PressFreedom #Arrest #Regime #PoliceState #PoliticalProsecution

#WhiteTerror
China-owned Media Accuses Taiwanese Scholar of Violating Hong Kong's #NationalSecurityLaw

In an article published on January 6, 2022, Ta Kung Pao, a China-owned newspaper printed in Hong Kong, accused Wu Rwei-ren, a political science scholar affiliated with Academic Sinica in Taiwan of violating Hong Kong's national security law.

The pro-Beijing newspaper made its claim based on an essay Wu wrote in February 2020, before the National Security Law was passed on June 30, 2020. The essay received the Human Rights News Award of the Hong Kong Journalists Association in 2021.

Wu responded that following the crackdown on independent news outlets like Stand News and Citizen News in Hong Kong, Beijing is trying to threaten international scholars who support Hong Kong.

Wu believes that Beijing will not be able to achieve the goal, as its acts have demonstrated the difference between the laws set up by the regime under the Chinese Communist Party and those practiced in democractic countries.

Source: Liberty Times #Jan8
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/breakingnews/3794583

#AcademicSinica #WuRweiRen #Academia #AcademicFreedom #PressFreedom #CCPThreats

Bloomberg: Haze Fan, who is working as a journalist in Beijing, is still detained by the Chinese authorities for a year

A journalist who works in the Office of Bloomberg in Beijing, Haze Fan, has been detained for a year by Chinese authorities. John Micklethwait, the Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg, issued a short statement regarding Haze Fan's 12 months of detention, raising concerns of people within the company about her health status.

The statement also indicated that the company would continuously try their best to assist Haze Fan and her family. News editorial staff missed Haze so much, no matter whether as a colleague or friend.

Haze Fan is a Chinese citizen and has worked for many foreign media such as CNBC, CBS, Al Jazeera and Reuters. She has worked at Bloomberg since 2017. On 7th December 2020, after the last time of contacting the editor at 11:30 am, Haze was taken away from the apartment by plainclothes law enforcement officers. Bloomberg has been seeking Haze’s whereabouts from the Chinese government and the Chinese Embassy in the United States.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China confirmed that Haze Fan was detained by Beijing Municipal National Security Bureau, suspecting that she was involved in criminal activities that endangered national security.

Source: Stand News #Dec07

#Bloomberg #China #NationalSecurity #PressFreedom

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen urges Beijing not to misjudge the situation in New Year speech

In Taipei, President Tsai Ing-wen delivered a New Year's speech in which she reiterated her concern about the situation in Hong Kong and stressed that the military was not an option for resolving cross-strait differences, urging Beijing not to misjudge the situation.

In her 2022 New Year's speech at the presidential palace, Tsai Ing-wen set out the four main plans for her administration this year, including continuation on global engagement, maintaining the economic momentum, strengthening the social security network, and safeguarding Taiwan's sovereignty.

She said that the interference in the election of the Hong Kong Legislative Council and the arrest of media personnel had raised concerns about human rights and freedom of speech in Hong Kong.

"The pursuit of democracy and freedom is not a crime, and Taiwan's position in support of Hong Kong will not change. Aside from showing our concern, we will cherish our own hard-earned freedom and democracy even more deeply", Tsai said.

Source: Now News #Jan01

https://news.now.com/home/international/player?newsId=461848&refer=Share

#Taiwan #TsaiIngWen #LegislativeCouncil #Election #TheStandNews #Arrest #PressFreedom

[Translator note: Some wordings are following the report from Focus Taiwan, a CNA English News agency]

Latest report by the Committee to Protect Journalists reveals that 320 journalists worldwide are currently imprisoned, with China topping the list at 44 journalists in detention. The report also highlights the situation in Hong Kong, where the cases of detained journalists continue to face significant delays in processing. The prolonged detention of media mogul Jimmy Lai under the national security law is a stark example. Press freedom remains under threat. #PressFreedom #JournalistsBehindBars #HongKong #China #JimmyLai