Hong Kong’s Courts Need to Maintain ‘Focus’ for the City’s Legal System to Endure – Former Judge Henry Litton
Hong Kong’s judiciary has lost its former efficacy and judges need to focus on remedies and practical issues rather than esoteric arguments, said Henry Litton, former judge of the Court of Final Appeal, in an FCC webinar.
“What I think one needs to do is to really just focus on the actual issues, rather than to give the entire narrative,” Litton said. “What has been happening in a lot of the cases is that the judges really are not focused anymore.”
“That is how the rule of law is supposed to work, not dissolving into clouds of words, of theories, of arcane analyses and so on which bear no relationship with the actual issue and problem on the ground,” Litton told FCC Journalist Governor Cliff Buddle.
He outlined five cardinal rules for strengthening the judiciary and rule of law: effective action, discipline of law, ensuring the law has a cutting edge, focusing on remedies and preventing courtrooms from becoming places of debate.
The former judge, who previously authored Is the Hong Kong Judiciary Sleepwalking to 2047?, said these changes are needed to ensure the survival of the city’s legal system in the coming years. He predicted that a decision would be made in the next five or six years on whether the common law system will be Hong Kong’s governing system beyond June 2047.
The courts adopting a more common sense approach would be seen as a favourable move by Beijing, Litton said, noting that the central government will ultimately decide the fate of the judiciary. He argued that a straightforward and effective judiciary would have a better chance of survival.
“For stability and prosperity, everyone everywhere would accept that when you have a legal system that actually works and functions, you should not dismantle it and try to replace it because there would be total chaos for many, many years, for generations maybe,” Litton said.
You can watch the full discussion below.
Independent Journalists Crucial to Exposing the Scale of India’s Coronavirus Catastrophe – FCC Panel
Local and independent reporters have played an essential and often high-risk role in revealing the true scale of India’s CVOID-19 catastrophe while many in the mainstream media have preferred to parrot the government’s narrative, journalists Barkha Dhutt and Rana Ayyub said in an FCC webinar.
They spoke amid a spiralling death count from the virus in India, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has been accused of downplaying the scale of the disaster while failing to provide essentials like oxygen to hospitals and vaccines to the population.
The government’s attempts to defend its response have been amplified by often compliant national media, the speakers said. Meanwhile, journalists reporting from hospitals and cremation sites have been branded “vultures” while Western coverage has been labelled anti-Indian and imperialistic.
“Most of the news channels are run by big investors, big industrialists who are craven and help Narendra Modi with his election campaigning, so you don’t expect them to speak truth to power”, said Ayyub, an investigative journalist and global opinions editor at The Washington Post.
As a result, grassroots reporting has been essential in telling the story, Dutt and Ayyub said in the webinar moderated by FCC First Vice President Eric Wishart.
Dutt, an opinion columnist with The Hindustan Times and The Washington Post whose father recently died of COVID-19, gave the example of images that emerged of bodies floating in Indian rivers as cremation and burial services became overwhelmed.
“These have come from people who are not famous journalists, who are just young stringers on the ground”, she said. “Despite the attempts to control big media, technology is liberating and anyone today with a phone and a spine is telling the stories that the world needs to see”.
“I want to acknowledge the work of really vulnerable reporters who do not have health insurance, have no organizational affiliation, these really extraordinary boots on the ground in our smaller towns and in our cities”.
At the same time, local journalists who dare to challenge local authorities live in fear of retribution.
Ayyub cited the example of a local journalist who sent her videos of 450 funerals in one day but refused to be quoted in an article she was writing for The Washington Post. “The chief minister of the state will make my life sad and miserable, and I will be thrown behind bars”, he told her.
Around 70 people describing themselves as “Concerned and Upset Indians” sent a joint letter to the FCC ahead of the event titled “Please Stop Providing Platform to Anti-Indians” and asking the club to cancel the discussion.
“Such people are completely biased and motivated”, it read, referring to the speakers.
Both Dutt and Ayyub, who have faced online violence including death and rape threats because of their coverage, said they were not surprised by the letter.
“What’s important to stress is that this is organized. Don’t think that this petition is a spontaneous reaction”, Dutt said. “There is now a clear attempt to deflect the scale and the enormity of what’s happening and create irrelevant side issues.”
“This takes us in a direction where we don’t have to talk about the fact that we are looking at a million more deaths by June, where you don’t have to talk about the fact that bodies are floating down the rivers of rural India”.
“We continue to be targeted for telling our stories, for doing our journalism, for going to cremation and burial grounds and showing you the pictures that have shaken the world”, Dutt said.
“We are being told we are vultures for feasting off the dead. Because we write for global media, we are being called anti-national. Whereas the true anti-nationalism we are seeing unfold is public relations between privileged over the lives of ordinary Indians”.
Ayyub, who spoke at the FCC’s 2019 journalism conference about the horrendous online violence she has faced, added: “This is how they shut independent voices, especially women journalists. You slut shame us all the time, you call us names, but you cannot silence us like that. So what better way to try to silence us than by calling us anti-Indian?”
Was there anything positive to take from the disaster?
“For the first time I see Indians united and not polarized by this Hindu-Muslim narrative” said Ayyub, who has set up a crowdfunding site to raise money for food and medical aid for the needy.
“They are united in helping each other out and amplifying each other’s voices, and I think Indians have now realized that this humanity will be the only savior at the end of the day”.
The full discussion can be watched below.
Hong Kong Press Freedom Index for Journalists Hits Record Low – HKJA
The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) has released the Hong Kong Press Freedom Index 2020, which shows that the index for journalists has reached an all-time low. According to the HKJA, the reason for the decline is that “journalists are more cautious than ever when they criticise the HKSAR Government and the Central Government, and managements have put more pressure on them.”
Noting that press freedom in Hong Kong has “greatly deteriorated in the past year,” particularly following the passage of the National Security Act, the HKJA describes a host of developments which have collectively impeded news gathering. As a result, the index for journalists is now at a record low of 32.1 on a scale of 0-100. Previously, the figure stood at 36.2 for 2019 and 40.9 for 2018, reflecting a rapid decline.
Governments Have Used the Pandemic to Curtail Press Freedom in SE Asia – FCC Panel
On World Press Freedom Day, an FCC Hong Kong panel of speakers representing press clubs across Southeast Asia painted a dire portrait of press freedom in the region as various governments have vilified, attacked and even arrested journalists throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the past year, the panelists said, a series of developments including the passage or threat of “fake news” laws, new visa restrictions, online harassment, physical violence and other forms of intimidation have led to a growing atmosphere of fear and self-censorship for reporters, particularly in Myanmar.
“Myanmar has hit a new low, and it’s been a very sobering spectacle for all of us in the region,” said Gwen Robinson, former president of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand. “Journalists are basically in hiding and fearing for their lives.”
Barnaby Lo, speaking on behalf of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, described a similarly treacherous environment for Filipino journalists, who are treated as enemies by President Rodrigo Duterte. He noted that a total of 170 journalists have been killed in the Philippines since democracy was restored in 1986, including 19 of them during Duterte’s presidency.
He also spoke about Maria Ressa, the high-profile Filipino journalist and editor currently facing 11 court cases and potentially decades of jail time, whose story has garnered international attention.
“While Filipinos do appreciate the support for Maria Ressa, I think a lot more journalists here in the Philippines need that kind of international support as well,” Lo said.
Ed Davies, president of the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club, said that Indonesia’s Electronic Information and Transactions law has been a cause for concern and has drawn criticism for its broad interpretation.
Similarly, Ate Hoekstra, president of the Overseas Press Club of Cambodia, said the government there regularly speaks out against “fake news” and is working on a new cybercrime law, which journalists fear may be broad enough to curtail press freedom.
Speaking on the situation in Hong Kong including troubling developments at RTHK and the prosecution of journalist Bao Choy, FCC President Keith Richburg said, “I would summarise it by saying we’re suffering death by a thousand cuts, nothing major but so many small things.”
In spite of the difficult environment in Southeast Asia, the panelists did highlight some positive developments from the past year, including the increased role of amateur journalists and eyewitness media.
“It’s raised the bar for conventional media,” said Robinson. “The images are out there, it forces you to go further.”
She also said the pandemic and the coup in Myanmar had changed the media landscape.
“There’s a lot that is positive that’s come out throughout the region in the new creativity in the ways journalists are pushing back, finding very resourceful ways to get news out, the way they’re operating,” Robinson said.
“People are starting to go back to SMS, old-fashioned text messages. We thought the era of transistors was dead, but actually I wouldn’t be surprised if soon you see a proliferation of transistor radios in Myanmar.”
Watch the full discussion below:
FCC Statement Marking World Press Freedom Day
The past 12 months have been one of the most challenging periods for press freedom, not just in Hong Kong but across the region. The military coup in Myanmar, the crackdown on protests in Thailand and attacks on independent media in the Philippines have all threatened the physical safety and personal liberty of reporters.
In Hong Kong, which has fallen to 80th place on the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, from 18th in 2002, journalists have contended with a range of challenges, including new police limits on accreditation, the prosecution of members of the media, ever increasing pressure on the editorial independence of RTHK, concerns over visas and an attack by thugs on a newspaper printing plant.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has said that the media are one of the priority sectors in Hong Kong that need to be “improved” and, with the support of Police Commissioner Chris Tang, says she wants to introduce a “fake news” law. Precedents from around the world have shown that such laws are invariably used to stifle critical coverage and freedom of speech.
On World Press Freedom Day, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong wishes to express its solidarity with journalists who are facing harassment, imprisonment or risking their lives to carry out their essential mission. The club is committed to defending press freedom in Hong Kong and across the region by speaking up when it is under threat, by providing resources and workshops for working reporters, and inviting prominent Hong Kong and international journalists and personalities to speak at the club on matters of public concern.
