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me mere Amone
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The Chinese newspapers which have been most ready to continue to give editorial comment on the future have been the independent, second rank newspapers, above all, the Economic Journal. The Financial Daily, the Express, the Ming Pao, the Hong Kong Daily News have also continued to speak up, as has the Oriental Daily. Of these the Oriental Daily went through a phase of factual reporting but has recently taken to printing details of threatening telephone calls made to the newspaper, and at the same time moved round to attacking the left-wing stand.
In very recent weeks there has been a change. Sing Tao editorialised on September 8th with a forthright state- ment that Britain would never betray Hong Kong people, and its sister paper the Sing Tao Wan Pao has similarly expressed the view that statements by left-wing trade unions cannot represent local views. Sing Pao has continued not to comment on the left-wing position, but it did on September 8th give a strong editorial on the importance of a free press. The Wah Kiu Yat Pao on the September 13th issued an editorial in which China's position was by inference called "irresponsible".
(a)
(b)
These recent changes seem to be due to three factors :
The left-wing press has increasingly begun to use expressions reminiscent of full ranking united front campaigns and this has scared the newspapers who now realise that their very existence as free organs is in doubt. Thus the Deputy Director of NCNA in public pointed his finger at a reporter of the Oriental Daily and said "some of the articles in your paper are very rude", at other occasions critical comment has been castigated in the local left-wing press as "insane" "the product of a diseased mind" "unpatriotic and un-Chinese" and so forth. This increase in the level and virulence of attack seems to have stiffened the backbone of the main line Chinese papers.
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The danger of the main line Chinese newspapers losing their readership to papers such as the Economic Journal who were continuing to speak out was becoming more obvious.
(c) We expressed our views as to newspapers who declined
to exercise editorial duties in such circumstances privately to the editors in question.
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