Hong Kong newspapers play up controversy over Chinese press freedom
By Arnold Zeitlin
freedomforum.org
06.20.01
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| Hong Kong iMail cartoon needling Tung Chee-hwa. |
HONG KONG — The Hong Kong press gleefully showed some independence after a sharp exchange about press freedom in China between the president of the World Association of Newspapers and the territory's chief executive.
But at the same time, the press in the autonomous region of China has remained glaringly silent over simultaneous developments — the crackdown on a newspaper in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, and the firing of editors from Southern Weekend, long a thorn in the side of Chinese officials controlling the country's news media, in Guangzhou, a 90-minute train ride away.
And a newspaper in China's southern Guangxi province was shut down by authorities, prompting a protest by employees who clashed with police, the Associated Press reported yesterday.
The Guangxi Business Daily was closed because it was operated by a private company, said the spokeswoman for the Communist Party-run Guangxi Daily.
Many of the Business Daily's 700 employees staged a street demonstration to protest the resulting layoffs, and a few were injured in clashes with police.
As for the Hong Kong debate, "Tung forced to defend China press freedom," the South China Morning Post headlined its page one report of the exchange between Roger Parkinson, president of the World Association of Newspapers and a former chairman of the Toronto Globe & Mail, and C.H. Tung, or Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong's China-selected chief executive.
The Morning Post, Hong Kong's leading English-language daily, carried the story next to one about 46,000 Hong Kong citizens lighting candles to remember the 12th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre on the same day as the WAN exchange.
"Tung hits out for China," was the headline that took up all of page one in the English-language tabloid, Hong Kong iMail, which added inside, "Tung swipes back at China press critic — visit China to see for himself."
Also on page one was a cartoon of a tattooed, snarling Tung in trunks with boxing gloves.
Tung twice invited Parkinson to visit China to inspect conditions there.
In an editorial, the iMail said the exchange "was a demonstration of freedom of speech in action in Hong Kong ... . The imprisonment of at least 22 journalists in China, including six cyber-journalists, is something everyone who cherishes press freedom should be concerned about."
The mention of the jailed journalists, made by Parkinson in his remarks, was a rare reference in an English or Chinese editorial to the crackdown in China, although the Hong Kong press usually carries news agency reports about arrests.
"Parkinson ... pulled no punches in attacking the mainland's tight control over the media," said a Morning Post editorial, stating that:
"Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa tried but failed to mount a robust response for the mainland. Maybe he did not really know much about the mainland press. If he had known, he could have told the conference that progress has been made by parts of the mainland media in trying to function less like a mouthpiece of the party."
"A free press is still one of the hallmarks of a modern society," the editorial added.
The Asian Wall Street Journal, published in Hong Kong, said in an editorial that "in choosing to slug it out with Mr. Parkinson, the chief executive managed only a self-inflicted wound ... . But not even Mr. Tung can wash away the fact that Chinese President Jiang Zemin is obsessed with information control and has made China the leading jailer of journalists."
The Chinese-language daily Ming Pao was quick to note in an editorial:
"It is a fact that there is no press freedom in China ... . Parkinson's critique brought Tung's proud words about China. Although he did not discuss the issue of press freedom in China, his 'China heart' was revealed."
The most hard-hitting response to Tung's defense of China came from an iMail humor columnist, Nury Vittachi, who wrote that he often felt sorry for Tung.
"China's own policies, which he pointedly avoids condemning, undermine the truth of his statements," he wrote. "What Mr. Tung basically did was to urge a group of international journalists to visit the mainland. And what happens if you try to get a visa and write 'journalist' on your application?
"They hand it back with a frown, telling you reporters are not welcome. Unless you tell lies, getting a journalistic visa is a headache."
Parkinson said he was in a unique position — on Chinese soil in Hong Kong — when he opened the 54th annual WAN Congress in the same hall where Hong Kong passed to Chinese sovereignty in July 1997.
Noting that China has embarked on an "apparent irreversible course of new and rapid development through more open and free business and trade," Parkinson said:
"At the same time, Beijing has had to make a choice about whether to accompany these changes with political liberalization and great personal freedom, including freedom of expression.
"I can only observe with regret that, for the time being, the choice appears to have been made firmly against those freedoms."
Parkinson noted that while Jiang had pleaded for help in narrowing the "digital divide" between north and south, China clapped six cyber-journalists into jail, joining at least 22 other Chinese put behind bars for that they wrote.
He also noted that China banned the Paris-based WAN executive director, Timothy Balding, from entering the country after he presented then-foreign minister Qian Qichen a petition in 1997 demanding the release of jailed journalists.
Listening to these remarks at the opening ceremonies, Tung, a U.S.- and British-educated shipping tycoon selected by Beijing four years ago to lead the new autonomous region, hurriedly altered his planned speech, according to Ella Tam Law Nam-wah, Hong Kong's deputy information coordinator.
"I have noted the comments made by Mr. Parkinson," said Tung. "I do not speak for China because my responsibility is Hong Kong. But I am proud and I am patriotic. I want China to succeed.
"But to truly understand China, you have to understand our history, culture and the direction in which China is moving, which is widely supported by the Chinese people. Enormous progress is being made everywhere in China today. You need to be there personally to witness the changes taking place and to understand the strong sense of pride, of nation-building, and the unity of purpose in pursuing this common goal ... . I am confident that having seen things for yourself, your views will be different."
The iMail commented that Tung spoke "in a rare show of intensity and emotion."
Parkinson also noted afterwards that in his defense of developments in China, Tung did not attempt to contradict the Canadian's attacks about press suppression.
Parkinson said he had visited China three times, most recently in 1999 when he interviewed Premier Zhu Rongi. He also has toured Tibet for a week and interviewed Jiang when the Chinese president visited Canada.
Parkinson said he planned to accept Tung's invitation to visit China — but only when he could be accompanied by the banned Balding.
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