TNAG-2745-FCO40-3960-Visits-by-the-Executive-Council-of-Hong-Kong-(EXCO)-and-Legi-1993 — Page 160

6.3

Urgent Business: Hong Kong, Freedom of Expression and 1997

CHINA AND THE INDEPENDENT MEDIA

Senior Chinese officials were said to be extremely unhappy with what they alleged to be the bias and partisan nature of local coverage of the pro-democracy movement and its suppression. Considerable blame was attached to the Hong Kong news media for prolonging the protests within China, as well as for whipping up demonstrations in the territory itself. The Beijing turmoil had the alarming effect, from China's viewpoint, of uniting the media's disparate partisan elements, if temporarily, and shifting the collective corps from their respective ideological conformities. The result was that the Hong Kong media experienced an openness unparalleled in its history.

6.3.1 Restrictions on journalists

In October 1989, the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office issued a set of seven regulations to restrict unauthorized media reporting on the mainland. The regulations, which broadly remain in force, require that all Hong Kong Chinese and foreign journalists working for local organizations must apply to the Hong Kong branch of Xinhua News Agency for permission each time they wish to report in China." The application, moreover, must be made 15 days in advance of the assignment, effectively preventing coverage of breaking stories, and must also include an outline of the story to be covered and the names of those to be interviewed. On arrival in China, the journalist must register with the All China Journalists Association, or one of its branches, and be issued with a one-time identity certificate. The regulations also made it illegal for Hong Kong media organizations to employ Chinese citizens as representatives or correspondents in China, and to conduct interviews with mainlanders by telephone.

Reaction to the rules from the local media community has been strong. The HKJA, the Hongkong Chinese Press Association and the News Executive Association each issued separate statements condemning the order. Each criticized China for interfering with freedom of expression, saying the regulations cast serious doubts over Beijing's future commitment to press freedom after 1997 as set out in the Joint Declaration and Basic Law. By controlling media access to the mainland, it was argued, China has effectively restricted the right of Hong Kong people to be informed of developments in their future sovereign state, not least those developments directly affecting the territory itself.

Coverage of the mainland, particularly coverage of Chinese affairs related to Hong Kong, is of considerable importance to the media, particularly to the competitive print media which vies to outdo its competitors on such stories. By having the capability to selectively apply bans on publications and individual journalists it might wish to punish for unfavourable or

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Separate regulations apply to Hong Kong-based foreign correspondents and to local journalists employed by Hong Kong offices of foreign news organizations.

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