China vs. Hong Kong
by AUSTIN RAMZY - Thursday, March 20, 2014
by AUSTIN RAMZY - Thursday, March 20, 2014
A protester held a sign calling for the protection of press freedom
during a demonstration in Hong Kong in support of Kevin Lau, the
former editor of the Ming Pao newspaper who was stabbed by two
knife-wielding assailants.
An assault on two executives of a Hong Kong newspaper by men with iron bars has heightened concerns about press freedom and the safety of journalists in the semiautonomous Chinese city.
The attack on Wednesday afternoon was the second high-profile assault on Hong Kong media executives in less than a month, after Kevin Lau Chun-to, former chief editor of the newspaper Ming Pao, was slashed by knife-wielding assailants and badly injured on Feb. 26. The latest assault victims were identified as Lam Kin-ming, 54, and Lei Lun-han, 46, executives with The Hong Kong Morning News, which has announced it will begin publication this year. According to the police, four men with metal bars attacked Mr. Lam and Ms. Lei around 1 p.m. as they were walking down a street near the Hong Kong Science Museum in the Tsim Sha Tsui East district.
The victims were still conscious when they were taken to a nearby hospital, and their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. The assault was widely condemned by journalists as another example of deteriorating conditions for press freedom. “Hong Kong is a place ruled by law; we absolutely cannot tolerate any violent assaults,” the Hong Kong Journalists Association said in a statement posted on its website. The Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club said, “This latest incident only underscores the deepening shadows being cast over the media landscape in Hong Kong from violence, intimidation and interference by political and commercial interests.” The former British colony returned to China in 1997 but maintains its own system of government and a tradition of aggressive journalism.
It has a history of grisly assaults on journalists, often hits carried out by members of organized crime groups acting on the order of others, whose identities are rarely uncovered. The radio host Albert Cheng was badly stabbed by assailants in 1998. Two years earlier, Leung Tin-wai had his forearm chopped off shortly after starting a new magazine. The assault on Mr. Lau last month came shortly after he had been removed from his position as the top editor of Ming Pao, one of Hong Kong’s most respected Chinese-language dailies. That removal stirred protest and concern about outside influence on media outlets. Two men suspected of carrying out the attack on Mr. Lau were arrested on the Chinese mainland, in Guangdong Province, and returned to Hong Kong, where they were charged on Wednesday with wounding. The police say that while they haven’t ruled out any possible motive, they have found no evidence connecting the attack to Mr. Lau’s work as a journalist.
Mr. Lau, who is recovering in a hospital, says he does believe there is a connection. Before the latest attacks, press freedom groups had complained about deteriorating conditions in Hong Kong and Taiwan and said that the growing political and economic clout of China was influencing coverage and contributing to self-censorship by journalists.
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