The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) will release our ninth China Press Freedom Report on Friday, January 20, 2017. The report “Strangling the Media: China Tightens its Grip” documents various kinds of ideological control by the Central Authorities of China, which uses official policies, media strategy, administrative rules, laws, restrictive orders and the government-owned media as its weapons. Propaganda, censorship, surveillance, intimidation, detention without trial, sabotage of the internet, brutality in the field, and televised “confessions” were its ammunition.
Journalists in Hong Kong and Macau fought to report independently in difficult conditions, as the Mainland government and local business people set up pro-Beijing news websites to fill the gap left by struggling print media. Five media workers from Mighty Current Publication and Causeway Bay Bookstore disappeared on the Mainland, Hong Kong and Thailand without explanation. Subsequently, another publication company was forced to withdraw publication of another book about China’s President Xi Jinping. These events directly affected the safety of Hong Kong people and the freedom of publication in Hong Kong, both of which are enshrined in the Hong Kong Basic Law.
However the most disturbing two scenarios were that several Hong Kong media outlets did not uphold the principle of press freedom and instead became “partners” of the Central Authorities, acting as their mouthpieces when reporting on the most sensitive cases. At the same time, the Chinese Liaison Office in Hong Kong continuously intervened in media’s editorial decisions.
The IFJ continues to document a list of detained journalists, media workers and bloggers.
We cordially invite media representatives to attend our annual report launch.
Day: Friday this weekDate: 20 January 2017Time: 11:00 amVenue: Veranda of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club Hong Kong.
For media enquiries please contact Alex Hearne –
[email protected]For further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on +61 2 9333 0946
The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 139 countries
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