Press freedom continues to deteriorate in Hong Kong

FILE – In this picture taken on June 16, 2020, pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai poses during an interview with Agence France-Presse at the Next Digital offices in Hong Kong.

Washington —

Jailed pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai testified Tuesday that the Hong Kong government became "very strict" after Beijing\’s national security law came into effect in 2020.

The 77-year-old British national made the statement when the court asked him to explain comments he made in August 2020 following the arrest of pro-democracy former lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting.

At the time, Lai said the arrest showed that the Beijing-imposed national security law, or NSL, "definitely had destroyed our rule of law." Lam was found guilty of rioting last week.

"I think the NSL has, you know, affected the way … the government conducted the law," Lai told the court Tuesday. "After the NSL, the government has been very strict in using the law."

The founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper stands accused of collusion with foreign forces and sedition under Beijing\’s national security law. He rejects the charges, which press freedom groups have decried as politically motivated.

"The trial is entirely a sham," Yaqiu Wang, the China research director at the nonprofit Freedom House, told VOA.

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Lai\’s plight is a feature, not a bug, of the current press freedom landscape in Hong Kong, according to analysts.

The past year has been particularly devastating for media freedom in a place that was once considered a bastion of press freedom in Asia, say analysts, who point to Lai\’s trial, a new national security law, and other trials of journalists as evidence that the media landscape has continued to deteriorate in Hong Kong.

"It\’s just the continuation of a dramatic decline in press freedom in Hong Kong," Wang said.

Next year is unlikely to be any better, multiple experts told VOA.

Lai\’s trial began in December 2023 and was initially expected to last about 80 days. But now, his year is set to end the same way it began: attending hearings for a trial that could sentence him to life in prison.

Sebastien Lai, the son of Jimmy Lai, has consistently voiced concern about his father\’s health. The elder Lai has been held in solitary confinement since late 2020.

"His health has gotten much worse, as you can expect when you put a 77-year-old man in solitary confinement for four years. But his spirit is holding strong. His mind is holding strong," Sebastien Lai told VOA in November.

Lai\’s case is intended to scare other people in Hong Kong from criticizing the government, says Caoilfhionn Gallagher, the head of Lai\’s international legal team.

"His case was also designed to send a chill down the spine of anyone who might want to wear a T-shirt or sing a song or post a tweet or say anything which might stand up to Hong Kong or Beijing\’s leaders," Gallagher said at a November press conference in Washington.

In late November, a Hong Kong government spokesperson told VOA it was "inappropriate" to comment on Lai\’s case because legal proceedings are ongoing. Hong Kong authorities have previously denied that Lai\’s trial is unfair.

The spokesperson also said Hong Kong "rejected any fact-twisting remarks and baseless smears against the legal system" and emphasized that "Hong Kong citizens enjoy freedom of the press and freedom of speech."

When it comes to press freedom in Hong Kong, Lai\’s trial is part of a broader pattern.

In August, two editors — Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam — at the now-shuttered Stand News were convicted of sedition and later sentenced to prison.

Like Lai\’s, that case was also viewed as a bellwether of the poor state of press freedom in Hong Kong, according to Sophie Richardson, a visiting scholar at Stanford University.

The cases "are a very clear message across the board to journalists that they cannot expect the protections of law to guarantee their free speech rights in order to practice journalism without fear of reprisal," Richardson told VOA.

In November, 45 pro-democracy activists were sentenced to prison under the national security law. And in September, the Hong Kong Journalists Association reported that dozens of Hong Kong journalists and their families had faced harassment since June.

"You\’re not safe if you cross the government," Mark Clifford, who recently published a biography on Jimmy Lai, told VOA.

Those developments have taken place against the backdrop of a new, homegrown national security law known as Article 23, which expands on Beijing\’s national security measure.

Enacted in March, Article 23 covers treason, sedition and state secrets, and allows for trials to be held behind closed doors.

Experts have warned the law will likely further the deterioration of press freedom and other civil liberties in Hong Kong.

"Almost any conduct can now be labeled as a threat to national security," said Richardson, the former China director at Human Rights Watch.