February 18, 2017 Board minutes
Charles Li: Hong Kong needs to help China unlock its wealth
Charles Li, CEO of HKEX, has high hopes for Hong Kong as a top global trading centre. Photo: Sarah GrahamHong Kong can thrive as a financial hub as long as it brings the world’s goods to China in order to unlock its wealth, according to Charles Li, who made the assertion as guest speaker at a club lunch.
The CEO of HKEX told guests on March 24 that, despite Hong Kong suffering from a ‘loss of faith in who we are’, he predicated a bright future for the city. But he said Hong Kong needed to become a fixed income derivatives centre and not just an equities centre if it wanted to become a top global trading hub.
He added that Hong Kong was now source of outbound rather than inbound investment for China. “It has too much money and doesn’t know what to do with it,” he said.
And he denied that HKEX was a stock market casino when asked by a Financial Times reporter about recent media reports of back door trading. Mr Li countered that the Hong Kong market was strong, adding that issues being reported in media are sometimes out of proportion. The reports called for stronger regulation to address market manipulation and volatility.
Open letter to C.Y. Leung appealing for digital media access to cover Hong Kong Chief Executive election
Dear Mr Leung,
Twelve journalists unions and news group urge you to give professional online-only media full access to government press activities and facilities in relation to the election of the Chief Executive on 26 March 2017.
Under the existing policy, those media are excluded from all official functions and denied entry to locations where elections will be held. Not only does this arrangement deviate from the government’s pledge of a fair, open and honest election, it is also against the press freedom promised in the Basic Law.
In this regard, we would stress that the Ombudsman had concluded in her December 6 finding that the Government has offered no convincing justification for its ban on online-only media from its press events. The Government is obliged to facilitate press access as part of the protection of press freedom stipulated in the Basic Law. Yet, the Ombudsman’s call for the lifting of the ban has yielded no result. Nor has there been any move towards accreditation of online media. In fact, there has been no discussion, whatever, with the industry in this regard.
With less than a week to go before the Election, the Information Services Department has provided no accreditation channel for the online-only media.
Given the significance of the Chief Executive election, such continued inaction is not only regrettable but also unreasonable. The press area, which will be located in the Hong Kong Convention Centre, should be spacious enough to include those journalists. Professional unions have already proposed different ways of accrediting journalists that are widely adopted by various authorities overseas.
Ignoring what has become an integral part of life worldwide is not in anyone’s interests, least of all the younger generation to whom the online medium is their sole access to the wider world.
Looking forward to your favourable reply, we remain.
Hong Kong Journalists Association
Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong
HK Press Photographers Association
Independent Commentators Association
Ming Pao Staff Association
Local Press
CitizenNews
PEN Hong Kong launches crowdfunding bid to create Hong Kong Handover 20th anniversary book
Writers from Hong Kong will contribute to an anthology marking the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong Handover this year.PEN Hong Kong plans to publish an anthology of non-fiction essays, short stories, poems and cartoons by some of Hong Kong’s brightest literary and creative minds to mark the 20th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from Great Britain to China.
It has launched a crowdfunding campaign on FringeBacker and is appealing for your support.
Each piece in the collection will offer a unique and personal commentary on the city’s past, present, and future. The book’s working title is Hong Kong 20/20: Reflections On A Borrowed Place.
Donate money here.
Among FCC members contributing are:
Steve Vines (journalist, writer and broadcaster)
Harry Harrison (SCMP cartoonist)
Ilaria Maria Sala (journalist/writer)
Kate Whitehead (journalist/writer)
Harry Harrison (SCMP cartoonist)
Ilaria Maria Sala (journalist/writer)
Kate Whitehead (journalist/writer)
Vaudine England (journalist)
As well as esteemed Hong Kong writers and artists, including:
Jason Ng (Writer/Umbrellas in Bloom)
Joshua Wong (student activist)
Tammy Ho Lai-ming (poet and co-founding editor of Asian Cha)
Margaret Ng (barrister, political, writer)
Oscar Ho (activist and writer)
To make this truly a Hong Kong work, the anthology will be published in two editions – Chinese and English. It needs support to fund high quality literary translators. Any extra money raised will go toward funding book-related events, such as public forums featuring the contributing artists and authors.
PEN Hong Kong hopes to raise HK$180,000 by June 19.
Own a unique Harry cartoon and help the FCC support the China Coast Community charity
He’s Hong Kong’s most famous illustrator whose satirical take on local politics is a mainstay of the city’s biggest English-language newspaper.
And now you can own an original drawing by cartoonist Harry Harrison by bidding in the FCC’s online auction.
Especially for the FCC, Harry has created this special cartoon reflecting one of the most topical subjects of the hour – the upcoming Chief Executive election. This original cartoon, signed by the man himself, will be a lasting memory of another chapter in Hong Kong’s history.
At the time of publication of this article, the bidding was at $9,000.
Bid for this unique Harry Harrison cartoon.Also up for grabs are a sumptuous dinner at The China Club, helicopter flights, a stay in Hong Kong’s newest hotel, not to mention a tour of Hong Kong in a vintage Rolls-Royce followed by tea at The Peninsula are some of the ‘lifestyle’ items available, complemented by a unique collection of items donated by our FCC members, including photographs of some of the momentous events of recent Hong Kong history.
The auction site is now open and you can view the items available and place your bids at www.fccfundraiser.com
Registering on the site and placing bids is easy so please take a look and use this opportunity to help our nominated charity, The China Coast Community. As with the raffle (tickets available at reception), all funds raised will go to our chosen charity thanks to the phenomenal generosity of our FCC members and friends who have donated the items.
Me and the Media: Freelance business writer George W. Russell
George W. Russell. Photo: Harry HarrisonGeorge W. Russell, an FCC member since 1988, combines freelance writing (mostly about business) with the pursuit of his interest in the history and practice of journalism as a part-time research assistant at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre.
Previously: Variety, Newsday, The Australian.
What made you want to work in media?
A favoured aunt taught me to read as a toddler, using the pages of The Herald, a defunct Melbourne evening daily. So my literacy was founded on the news of the day. I was a typical teenager with no clue about the future and I’d done badly in my final year of high school. I was rescued from having to make further decisions by a delightful old hack named Pat Tennison, who ran the cadet course at Southdown Press in Melbourne (part of the Murdoch empire). He saw something no one else could see and offered me job as a copy boy on The Australian.
What has been a career high point?
I’ve never been a true hard news reporter, or a proper foreign correspondent. I’ve kind of worked in trade and other fringe media. But I have fond memories of working for Variety, the US showbiz bible, putting in 20 hours a day editing a daily newspaper at the Cannes film festival and fuelled by pizza and rosé, and driving the Mac page files at high speed along the A8 in a Renault minivan to the printers in Nice. My present life is a high point, too. It’s my third time in Hong Kong and it’s great here with a family I love and helping out at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong. It’s inspiring to work with the students and learn new things about media myself.
What has been a low point?
There have been so many. It’s not so much burned bridges as a conflagration of crossings. Another low is when a title has closed on me, and there have been a few of those. Another was thinking I could survive as a freelance editor in Seattle in the 1990s. It was my first experience of watching the dying print media in a small, insular city. I was sleeping in an abandoned car at one point. Another was when a man named Stanley Asimov at Newsday on Long Island who, after I’d done a week’s tryout on the copy desk, suggested I consider a career outside journalism.
What career advice would you give to your younger self?
Accumulate more and better skills and experience. Look beyond what’s happening in your own personal clique and pay more attention to the big media picture. It’s important to be able to readjust your own settings to better fit the market, especially as a freelancer. Go to seminars and conferences, talk to as broad cross-section of society as you can. And I can’t think of how much I’ve made from selling stories that were inspired by an FCC lunch speaker.
Fancy a tour of Hong Kong in a Rolls-Royce? Start bidding now in the FCC’s online auction
As part of the FCC’s ‘Hong Kong Remembers’ fundraising, a silent auction platform has been launched with a great range of items up for grabs.
The FCC’s online bidding site is simple to use.A sumptuous dinner at The China Club, helicopter flights, a stay in Hong Kong’s newest hotel, not to mention a tour of Hong Kong in a vintage Rolls-Royce followed by tea at The Peninsula are some of the ‘lifestyle’ items available, complemented by a unique collection of items donated by our FCC members, including photographs and cartoons of some of the momentous events of recent Hong Kong history.
The auction site is now open and you can view the items available and place your bids at www.fccfundraiser.com
Registering on the site and placing bids is easy so please take a look and use this opportunity to help our nominated charity, The China Coast Community.
As with the raffle (tickets available at reception), all funds raised will go to our chosen charity thanks to the phenomenal generosity of our FCC members and friends who have donated the items.
Hong Kong Remembers raffle tickets now on sale – and a snip at $50 each
With 70 great prizes, the FCC’s ‘Hong Kong Remembers’ raffle is not only a key part of the club’s charitable drive to raise funds for the China Coast Community, but also a great chance to secure some fabulous swag.
FCC members and friends have rallied round to donate an extensive prize list of prizes: two nights stay at The Peninsula, Bangkok; dinner for four at Crown Wine Cellars; lunch for 10 at the famed Ming Kee in Po Toi; books signed by authors Chris Patten and David Tang as well as 13 other FCC member authors; rare copies of late FCC legend Marvin Farkas’s seminal Asian gangster movie ‘Wit’s End’; together with a range of wines and spirits are just some of the items up for grabs.
Tickets priced at HK$50 each are available at the FCC reception, so pick up a few when you collect your tickets to the March 25th ‘Hong Kong Remembers’ extravaganza. If you can’t make that date, support the event by buying a few tickets. The raffle will be drawn at 22.30hrs on March 25th and results posted in the club, on the FCC website and in newspapers.
Hong Kong’s last British colonial governor Chris Patten, pictured here in November 2016, has signed a book for the FCC raffle./ AFP PHOTO / Anthony WALLACE
The FCC’s Journalism Conference 2017: Fake news, social media and story pitching are top topics
The FCC’s first Journalism Conference featured panelists of senior editors and reporters from around the region. Photo: AsiapixSave the date – Saturday, April 29 – for the Foreign Correspondents’ Club Hong Kong’s second journalism conference, back by popular demand.
The day will feature practical workshops and discussions by panels of experts relevant to journalists at all stages of their careers. Topics will range from fake news to virtual reality, drone videos, making the best of social media, how to pitch stories and how to sell the Hong Kong story to an international audience and reporting in China, plus many more.
Speakers include reporters and editors from major news organisations such as The New York Times, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg, BBC, Time, the Financial Times and Quartz.
Details will be sent out along with booking forms in mid-March, with preferential early sign up for Correspondent and Journalist members.
READ MORE: FCC Journalism Conference 2016 – covering news in an era of digital disruption
FCC statement on prosecution of BBC Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club Hong Kong is appalled by the criminal defamation and Computer Crimes Act case in Thailand against Jonathan Head, the BBC’s Southeast Asia correspondent. The charges, initiated by a private citizen over Head’s reporting on foreign retirees who were scammed in Phuket, carry a possible five-year prison sentence. Head had to surrender his passport, seriously impeding his ability to report across Asia.
Head’s case is emblematic of the state of press freedom in Thailand. Laws pertaining to criminal defamation, computer crimes and lese majeste are routinely abused, both by authorities and private citizens, to harass and silence journalists. The end result is a climate of fear that leads to self-censorship, depriving Thai citizens of free speech and access to reliable information, and enabling a culture of impunity for the powerful and shameless.
The FCCHK stands in support of our colleagues in Thailand. It calls on those responsible to throw out the case against Head. Moreover, Thailand’s leaders should undertake long overdue reform of laws regarding criminal defamation, computer crimes, and lese-majeste.
Journalists should be free to do their jobs responsibly without fear of frivolous lawsuits that deprive them of time, money, and the ability to travel freely for months or years. In addition, private citizens shouldn’t be able to launch cases that carry criminal penalties, particularly given the current lack of even common sense oversight.