Former British colony, which was returned to China in 1997, was once regarded as a safe haven for dissent and the freedom of expression and press that is not available on the mainland. The Beijing central government has imposed a clampdown on independent news outlets and removed monuments to dissent in the past year. This led to poor attendance at elections that were won by pro-Beijing candidates.
Citizen News founders announced Tuesday that the news outlet will cease publishing. They have not been given an order to close the news site, but they stated Monday that they were in an impossible situation due to the deteriorating media freedoms at the financial hub.
“We all love this area deeply. “Regrettably,” Citizen News stated in a Sunday statement that the future holds not only raining or blowing wind, but also hurricanes and tsunamis.
After the closing of Apple Daily, the last pro-democracy newspaper in the territory, and Stand News, the outlet is now the third to close.
Citizen News was started in 2017 by a group veteran journalists. This small site focuses on political news, analysis pieces, and investigations. In recent months, it has become a refuge for many journalists who lost their jobs due to closures of other outlets or other pressures.
Vivian W.W. Tam is a senior lecturer at Chinese University of Hong Kong’s journalism program. She posted the following on Facebook: “With Apple Daily’s sudden closing in the past summer,”. Tam declined to speak with us.
Independent reporting has become more dangerous due to a new, sweeping National Security Law that China’s central legislature has imposed on Hong Kong. The law has led to the arrest of journalists and political activists and forced unions and civil rights groups to dissolve. Many other activists fled.
New laws have been passed in Hong Kong to change the way Hong Kongers vote. They include a requirement that all candidates for office must be “patriots”, effectively placing the body under Beijing’s purview.
Chris Yeung, Citizen News founder and chief writer, stated that “what we thought about press freedom has changed quite a bit.”
Yeung stated at a Monday news conference that what happened to Stand News was the reason for them closing down. Stand News was raided by authorities last week and seven people were taken into custody, including former board members. They were accused of conspiring to publish seditious material. Stand News also announced that it would close its doors on the same day.
Two former editors of Stand News were later arrested and formally charged for sedition.
Authorities forced the closing of Apple Daily by Jimmy Lai, a media tycoon who was also a democracy activist, in the summer. Lai is currently being held in jail, and was recently charged with sedition.
Chung Ching Kwong is the project manager for the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong. He said, “I fear this will turn Hong Kong to a black box. That nobody will be informed.”
She stated that, although Citizen News was not contacted by authorities she considered the closure to be forced.
Kwong, a Hong Kong activist who lives in Germany now said that the closures are involuntary because they fear that journalists will not be able to do genuine journalism in Hong Kong’s current political climate.
Monday’s statement by the Society of Publishers in Asia (a Hong Kong-based group that hosts an annual journalism prize) also indicated its concern about the pressures on independent media in Hong Kong.
The U.S. and other Western countries have condemned Beijing’s promises to uphold civil and media freedoms for 50 years after Hong Kong’s 1997 handover.
Last week, Carrie Lam, the leader of Hong Kong, defended the raid against Stand News. She told reporters that “inciting others… could not have been condoned under guise news reporting.”
Hong Kong Free Press, an English language news outlet, and Initium (a Chinese-language news agency that moved its headquarters from China to Singapore in August) are the only independent news media left in the city. However, staff remain in the city.
Citizen News compared itself to a small boat in rough waters.
“At the centre of a brewing hurricane, we found ourselves in a critical position. It stated that in the face of crisis, it was necessary to ensure safety and well-being for all aboard.
