• Hong Kong Paper Ousts Top Editor, Stirring Concern by Chris Buckley and Gerry Mullany

Hong Kong Paper Ousts Top Editor, Stirring Concern
by Chris Buckley and Gerry Mullany - Sunday, February 02, 2014

HONG KONG — This city’s Ming Pao newspaper has long stood for sober independence in a media market that is both brashly commercial and buffeted by political winds from China, its reporters pursuing and often breaking stories that irk the territory’s overseers in Beijing. 


So when the paper’s chief editor, Kevin Lau Chun-to, told employees this month that he was being moved aside by its owners, the suspicion spread that he had been sacrificed to appease the Chinese government and its local loyalists.
Shock rippled through the newsroom.

Noisy protests broke out among residents who fear that Mr. Lau’s abrupt departure represents an alarming advance in the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to subdue the territory’s independent media. His ouster comes as Hong Kong enters a volatile time, facing contention over how far to go in proposals to elect the territory’s leaders through universal suffrage, a step that worries the Chinese government, as well as broader tensions about the growing political and social influence of mainland China.
For many, the shake-up at Ming Pao crystallized anxieties about those strains and about the vulnerability of the news media to political influence. On a recent weekend, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the newspaper’s offices, many dressed in black and clutching black balloons, calling for it to maintain its independence.


Protesters massed outside the Ming Pao newspaper offices Sunday to support its independence.

“If Ming Pao goes down, it does mean that the lights go out” on independent, aggressive reporting, said Margaret Ng, a lawyer who has worked as an editor at the newspaper and also served on the Hong Kong Legislative Council. “This is a particularly crucial moment,” Ms. Ng said. “There are very few papers now that will do full investigative journalism; Ming Pao is the only one left.” Newsstands in Hong Kong sell a profusion of publications that cover news across the political spectrum, reflecting the territory’s protection of free speech, along with plenty of titles devoted to lighter topics, like celebrity gossip and horse race betting tips. The Apple Daily, a popular tabloid, specializes in a mix of combative journalism and salacious scandals. Newspapers like Wen Hui Po and Ta Kung Pao loyally reflect the Chinese government’s views, and have a small readership.

Ming Pao is one of a handful of local broadsheets that seek to offer thorough, independent coverage of Hong Kong and mainland China. Under Mr. Lau, the paper pursued investigations of the Hong Kong chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, and of the death of a mainland dissident who many suspect was murdered despite his death being ruled a suicide. Recently, it participated in an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists into offshore accounts owned by wealthy and politically well-connected Chinese citizens. “It has been relatively able to achieve a balanced editorial approach, and that’s why people treasure its independence,” said Ching Cheong, a prominent Hong Kong journalist who writes opinion columns for Ming Pao. He was imprisoned in China for nearly three years on spying charges that he describes as entrapment.

“Now, with the sudden change of a chief editor, everyone is worried that relatively independent editorial policy will be affected,” Mr. Ching said. He and other opinion writers for the paper have often criticized the Hong Kong government and mainland authorities. Although Ming Pao occupies a niche of Hong Kong’s media market, its history as a sophisticated, outward-looking newspaper has given it outsized influence. It was started in 1959, and its co-founder was Louis Cha, better known among Chinese readers as Jin Yong, the author of revered martial arts novels. A public opinion survey released this month by the Chinese University of Hong Kong found Ming Pao rated the territory’s third most credible newspaper, closely behind the top-ranked English-language South China Morning Post and The Hong Kong Economic Times.

In 1995, Tan Sri Datuk Sir Tiong Hiew King, a Malaysian of Chinese heritage, bought a controlling stake in Ming Pao and its stable of publications. His main business is the Rimbunan Hijau Group, a timber multinational that does significant business in China. After the paper changed hands, it largely maintained its independence, journalists there said.

But reporters and editors said they feared that the newsroom’s autonomy had weakened this year, with the news that the chief editor, Mr. Lau, would be removed.
“There was shock, surprise,” said Phyllis Tsang, deputy assignment editor at Ming Pao, who was among those raising concerns about Mr. Lau’s departure. “Some people got emotional and had to hold back tears. We haven’t had anything like this happen since the handover,” she said, referring to 1997, when Hong Kong passed from British to Chinese sovereignty. She and other Hong Kong journalists said they worried that Beijing’s political influence was eroding the formal barriers established with that handover.
Under the deal negotiated by China and Britain, known as “one country, two systems,” Hong Kong is supposed to have considerable autonomy through laws and courts that insulate residents, businesses and the news media from mainland control. But Hong Kong media outlets want to woo advertisers that are also focused on breaking into mainland China, which can depend on pleasing, or at least not offending, its leaders.

Hong Kong journalists cited reports that companies had pulled advertising from publications that anger the Communist Party. “All the owners of news media want to do business with China; you have to play to the tune of the Chinese government,” said Lee Cheuk-yan, a Hong Kong legislator and labor leader. Mr. Lau would not comment on his removal. A statement issued by Ming Pao said the newspaper would continue its commitment to unbiased reporting and editorial independence. “Ming Pao has undergone a number of changes in chief editor, and its editorial direction has always remained consistent, and will not change because of personnel changes,” said the statement, sent by a spokeswoman for the paper. Mr. Lau’s permanent successor has not been announced yet. A former chief editor is in charge for now. The upheaval at Ming Pao comes amid rising concerns about media independence in Hong Kong.

Last fall, the Hong Kong government denied a television license to a well-funded start-up even after a government committee said the network would promote healthy competition. The decision prompted protests by thousands of people who asserted that the decision reflected the Hong Kong government’s desire to stymie independent voices that might anger Chinese authorities. The Chinese government has not commented on the controversy over Mr. Lau’s departure. Last week The Global Times, a popular mainland Chinese tabloid owned by the Communist Party’s People’s Daily, dismissed claims of party meddling as “laughable” and “infantile.” It accused enemies of China in Hong Kong of using the incident to “fan Hong Kong residents’ hostility towards the mainland.” The coming year is likely to be a politically tense one in Hong Kong, with pro-democracy forces calling for widespread protests to push Beijing to allow unfettered direct elections for the selection of the territory’s chief executive in 2017. 

In June, mass demonstrations are likely for the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, with previous such rallies drawing tens of thousands of people to the streets.

“If Ming Pao shifts, there’s even less room for truly independent journalism in Hong Kong,” said Yuen Chan, a lecturer in journalism at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
“People have been saying that this shows we can’t rely on traditional media anymore.”