Club Lunch Panel: Does Press Freedom Still Exist in Hong Kong?
Date: 23 May 2022 12:30 PM — 02:00 PM | Venue:
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| LUNCH PANEL Does Press Freedom Still Exist in Hong Kong? |
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| Does Hong Kong still have press freedom? In the most recent 2022 Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders, Hong Kong plummeted to 148th place on the list, behind Singapore and even Cambodia. The last year has seen the city’s most popular newspaper, Apple Daily, shut down and several online media outlets closed. At least 20 media workers, including reporters and editors, have been arrested since mid-2020, many under the old and rarely-used sedition ordinance, and at least a dozen have been charged or are awaiting trial. The city’s top officials, including the outgoing and incoming chief executives, insist that Hong Kong has press freedom since it is guaranteed in the Basic Law. But how is press freedom being upheld in practice? Our panel will discuss whether Hong Kong still enjoys any vestiges of press freedom in a political climate that has been radically and rapidly transformed. Moderated by FCC Correspondent Member Governor Jennifer Jett. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Panelists include: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SHARRON FAST: Sharron Fast is the Deputy Director of the Master of Journalism Programme at the University of Hong Kong. She is a Senior Lecturer in Media Law. She is the former editor of the CCPL Rights Bulletin and the Annotated Ordinances of Hong Kong. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| RONSON CHAN: Ronson Ron-Sing Chan is the Chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association. He began his journalistic career after graduating from Hong Kong Shue Yan University where he studied Journalism and Mass Communication. He has extensive experience in working for newspapers, online media, and TV channels, and in covering policing, transportation, and home affairs news. Before joining the “Channel C HK” in March 2022, he was the Deputy Assignment Editor for the Stand News, a news website with over a million subscribers on Facebook, until its former and Incumbent Editors-in-Chief were arrested by the National Security Police and charged with engaging in a conspiracy to publish seditious materials and denied bail. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| KEITH B. RICHBURG: Keith B. Richburg is the FCC President. Since 2016, he has been director and professor of practice at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Center. He is a Global Opinions contributing columnist for The Washington Post. An award-winning former Post correspondent and foreign editor, Richburg has been based in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Nairobi, Paris, Beijing, Shanghai and New York. He is the author of “Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa.” | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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