Fallout Two Years After 7.21

Commuters in Yuen Long station were attacked two years ago

 

It's hard to believe it's been two years since the horrific attacks on commuters in Yuen Long by men in white T-shirts armed with long wooden sticks and metal rods. What has happened since then?

Last month five people were convicted in the attacks and will be sentenced tomorrow, another man was acquitted on the lack of evidence. That is only a tiny fraction of the people involved in the incident that left 45 people injured and shocked Hongkongers who watched it unfold in real time.

Ho livestreamed the attack, was later arrested

The brave journalist Gwyneth Ho of Stand News who kept live streaming the incident as she was being attacked became a politician in the hopes of running in the Legislative Council elections in 2019 that were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

But in January she was arrested along with 52 others for organizing and participating in the pro-democracy primaries last July. Ho was released on bail.

Another now former pro-democracy lawmaker, Lam Cheuk-ting, who rushed to the scene and was injured himself, was arrested for the same charge.

Lam was also arrested earlier this year

RTHK did an extensive investigation into the Yuen Long attacks, but one of its producers, Bao Choy Yuk-ling, was arrested and convicted for "submitting misinformation" when she requested ownership information of some of the vehicles used by the white-shirted men.  

While she was fined HK$6,000 for two violations of the Road Traffic Ordinance, Choy is appealing the decision because she feels she has done nothing wrong.

The RTHK documentary, 7.21: Who Owns the Truth? won a human rights prize and journalism nods, but public broadcaster refused to accept the awards and even tried to withdraw the application beforehand.

Choy does not believe she did anything wrong

But on that same evening in Western district, another attack was happening at the liaison office. Protesters defaced the Chinese emblem with black paint and it was then that state media began reporting on the anti-government protests and described the participants as rioters.

This incident may have set in motion the beginning of plans to implement the national security law less than a year later.

Now two years later, after Apple Daily shut down, laid off its staff and turned off the lights, the former executive editor was taken away by police, along with three others who reported to police following their bail conditions. They are expected to be charged under the national security law.

Lam Man-chung was arrested today

Eight in total have been have been arrested since last month, including two editorial writers, while Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying was arrested last year for violating the national security law.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association said it was shocked and puzzled by the latest arrest, describing freedom of the press as the "cornerstone of an international city".

"The association urges the government not to keep arresting journalists in the name of national security in a bid to create white terror in the field," it said.

What will happen a year from now?

 

Civil Case Dropped on Yuen Long MTR Attacks

Lam is charged with subversion related to the July primaries

 

A former opposition lawmaker has dropped his lawsuit against police chief Chris Tang Ping-keung, suing for compensation for the injuries he sustained during the July 21, 2019 attacks in Yuen Long. 

Lam Cheuk-ting rode the train to Yuen Long and was attacked by white-shirted men wielding sticks, resulting in an injury to his mouth that required 18 stitches. Forty-four others were injured.

Lam was injured from the July 2019 attacks

He had sued Tang in the hopes of shedding more light on what happened that night, as the police were late to respond to the frantic emergency calls about the attacks in the MTR station, and it seemed the authorities were colluding with the attackers.

However, Lam and seven others have now dropped the suit, with Lam's lawyer, Albert Ho Chun-yan accusing the Department of Justice for dragging its feet on the case. He said that it had taken over a year for both sides to exchange documents, and that the case still had not proceeded to the stage of handling witness statements.

In addition Ho revealed the DOJ had recently asked the plaintiffs to drop their suit, arguing it was baseless.

"We anticipated that we might have to spend another year arguing over this, and the government may also appeal [if we win]," Ho said. "It seems that they are taking the plaintiffs as personal enemies."

Ho (second left) says dropping civil case today

And, unlike the government, Ho does not have unlimited funds. His client Lam decided it would be better for the money allocated for his lawsuit from the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund to be used to help others.

"The purpose of Lam suing was not purely to seek compensation, but to seek justice and to compel the full discovery of many facts and pieces of information, many of which are now being hidden by the police and withheld from public disclosure," Ho said. "It is not getting too time-consuming and costly before we can reach that stage."

The other issue at hand is that Lam is currently in jail waiting for his trial for subversion, along with 46 others for running an unofficial primary last July to select candidates for the Legislative Council elections that were eventually postponed because of the pandemic.

Prosecutors claimed the poll was "a massive and well-organized scheme" aimed at paralyzing the government and forcing Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to resign.

Choy was convicted last month, now appealing

Meanwhile also related to the July 21, 2019 attacks, RTHK freelance producer Bao Choy Yuk-ling, who was convicted of knowingly making a false statement under the Road and Traffic Ordinance to find information about vehicles that carried the white-shirted attackers, has decided to appeal.

She admitted she had no reason to be optimistic about the outcome given Hong Kong's "rapidly changing" political climate, but vowed to challenge the verdict in the city's top court if required.

"I have struggled with whether I should be more selfish and just let the case go, let myself go and just do whatever I want," Choy wrote on social media on Wednesday in announcing her appeal bid.

"But after going through the sadness and thinking over and over again, I know that I will definitely regret it for life and would not be able to sleep at night if I give up the pursuit of justice at this moment."

Photos like this seem to suggest collusion

Choy was convicted on two counts and find HK$6,000 (US$773). 

In making this appeal Choy is taking a brave stand to clear her name and for all journalists to be able to access public records for accountability. 

Both these cases show how fragile rule of law is in Hong Kong, making it is harder for people to maintain their faith in this crucial pillar of "one country, two systems" in the Basic Law that is fast eroding...

HK Press Freedom Under Attack on World Press Freedom Day

RTHK contributor Bao Choy was convicted last month

 

Today is World Press Freedom Day and ironically press freedom in Hong Kong is under attack with the sacking of Cantonese-speaking RTHK journalist Nabela Qoser, and the publicly funded broadcaster is deleting stories and programs from the internet that are over a year old, signalling its opportunity to rewrite history.

Qoser, a Hong Kong-born journalist of Pakistani descent was known for her pointed, critical questions at government officials during the 2019 anti-government protests. But after complaints about her reporting, she was put under investigation and her contract was was terminated in January, and then she was put on temporary contract until the end of this month.

Qoser must leave RTHK at the end of May

In the investigation she was cleared of wrongdoing, but another probe was reopened last October.

And then it was discovered RTHK has begun deleting news stories and programs over a year old on its website and social media accounts.

RTHK claimed this practice was consistent with its policy, and documentaries from Hong Kong Connection and episodes from the axed satirical show Headliner were among the first to be taken down from YouTube.

Some Hongkongers are now rushing to save whatever is left on the RTHK sites to prevent them from being disappeared by putting them on a blockchain content-sharing platform.

"After [RTHK] was painted red by [director of broadcasting] Patrick Li Pak-chuen, all its contents will be removed from the shelves. To ensure history will not be forgotten, internet users have decided to upload the programs here," said a statement posted on an online platform called "SaveRTHK".

Lui says deleting programs against public interest

Bruce Lui, a journalism lecturer at Baptist University said RTHK may be the owner of the programs, but removing them from the internet is against public interest and a waste of taxpayer money.

"News is the first draft of history and also the public can look at it afterwards and learn what happened in the past. If we delete those records, it's sort of clearing the history so that the public won't have a very good picture of what happened," he said.

He noted many of the programs removed were related to the social unrest of 2019.

"The government and Beijing are trying very hard to create their own version of history, so they can have their mainstream definition and it will also take away embarrassment and wrongdoings of the government," he said. 

Screen shot of RTHK's deleted shows on YouTube

"In the future, people will only know the government's version, without knowing the civilian version of history."

How chilling is that? The authorities are attempting to whitewash what happened only two years ago even though people not only have other sources of news to look up, but also first-hand experiences of being in the protests. The government is basically negating their actions, or prosecuting them.

And on top of what happened today,  Hong Kong's press freedom index as rated by journalists has sunk to an all time low thanks to the government's imposition of the national security law last June.

In a joint survey by the Hong Kong Journalists Association and the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, 367 journalists were surveyed and gave the city's press freedom a score of 32.1 out of 100, even lower than the previous record last year of 36.2.

HKJA's chairman Chris Yeung Kin-hing warned "the worst is yet to come".

"The chilling effect of the national security law will become more prevalent and intrusive in every aspect of [our society]. I don't think there is any room for optimism," he told a press conference today, predicting the index would drop again.

Yeung worries HK press freedom will worsen

Up to 85 percent of the journalists surveyed said the government is the source of media suppression. 

A staggering 99 percent of all the respondents said the enactment last June of the national security law had harmed press freedom, with 77 percent saying the legislation caused "great damage". 

When asked to rate a list of 2020 incidents for their repercussions for the industry, 99 percent agreed the prosecution of RTHK contributor Bao Choy Yuk-ling was harmful to press freedom.

She was recently found guilty of knowingly making a false statement when tracing the ownership of vehicles that were apparently used to ferry white-shirted men to Yuen Long MTR station to assault people there on the night of July 21, 2019. Choy was fined HK$6,000 (US$772).

Then 98 percent of respondents told the survey the August 2020 raid of Next Digital's offices -- headquarters of Apple Daily -- also triggered a decline in press freedom.

Yeung was concerned the government may be shifting to follow the mainland, where the media is used as a propaganda tool for the central government.

Police raid of Next Digital last August

It certainly looks like RTHK is being muzzled and with the deletion of previous content, it is paving the way for recreating a new version of Hong Kong's history. This should ring alarm bells for anyone in the city and around the world about what is happening here and more attention needs to be paid to the situation.

But with everyone too busy fighting the pandemic, and bickering over getting vaccinated or not, Hong Kong's rights and freedoms continue to erode even further, making one wonder when they will bottom out...

Hong Kong's Press Freedom Under Assault

After the verdict Choy said: "Uncovering the truth is not a crime"

 

Press freedom in Hong Kong was under attack again today, with journalists no longer able to use public records to do investigative reporting for the public good without being prosecuted.

Bao Choy Yuk-ling, 37, is the first person to be convicted related to the July 21, 2019 mob attacks in Yuen Long, and yet she did not carry a stick and violently beat people in the MTR station that night.

There were an estimated 100 men in white shirts with sticks who assaulted commuters, and yet only 63 people have been arrested and yet to be brought to justice.

White-shirted men assaulted people July 2019

But the first person to be found guilt is the journalist who told the truth.

Through security surveillance video footage of the attacks, Choy went to the Transport Department's vehicle registration database to find out who owned vehicles that ferried some of those white-shirted attackers to the station, and how the police were slow to attend to the scene where 45 people were injured.

That information Choy found was reported in a documentary called "7.21: Who owns the truth", that has just won the Hong Kong Journalists' Association's Kam Yiu-yu Press Freedom Award, with judges praising it for the journalists' "detailed and professional search on public records".

Notably RTHK declined the award, as its head is in the midst of overhauling the public broadcaster's programs for political correctness.

In her verdict, Principal Magistrate Ivy Chui Yee-mei found Choy guilty of providing false statements, that she sought details of car ownership for reporting purposes rather than transport-related reasons. Chui fined Choy HK$6,000, or HK$3,000 for two counts of knowingly making false statements. The maximum penalty would have been six months in prison.

Choy tearfully spoke to the media after verdict

Despite not being named in the documentary, one of the car's owners filed a complaint to the police, which led to Choy's arrest in November.

When requesting the car ownership information, there is no box to tick "for media purposes", but only "others", which she did.

"I am of the view that whether the defendant had sought the information out of good faith was unimportant," Chui said. "I can be sure that the defendant... knew clearly she made the applications for the purposes of searching, interviewing, and reporting, none of which falls under the three options offered by the Transport Department."

Outside the court, Choy was tearful, but defiant.

"Today the court found me liable for a crime, but I firmly believe searching public records is not an offence, and neither is [upholding] press freedom," she said.

Standing next to her was Chris Yeung Kin-hing, chairman of the HKJA, who said today was "a dark day for the Hong Kong press".

Choy's supporters: "Journalism is not a crime"

He criticized the government for undermining press freedom the public's right to know, adding officials were, in effect, sheltering people with something to hide.

Dozens of supporters behind them, many RTHK workers, held signs that read "Journalism is not a crime" and "Defend press freedom".

Needless to say Choy's former employer, the government broadcaster, is not footing her legal expenses -- she is left on her own.

The government is making it harder for journalists to do their jobs. Last month Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor saw no point in giving reporters the privilege to conduct record searches using government databases, stressing the need to prevent doxxing or weaponising of personal information.

In addition the government says other public registers, including those on marriage status, land ownership and company particulars are under review to determine whether further similar administrative measures to protect data privacy are needed.

This move just makes it easier for corruption to happen more easily in Hong Kong, with no ability to hold any one accountable for anything.

Yeung (left) says today dark day for HK media

While Lam thinks this will not affect the financial markets, she is wrong. Capitalism depends on freedom of information. When it becomes more opaque, there is less trust in the system, which will only make Hong Kong's strength in the finance and banking fields atrophy and eventually wither away.

In the meantime Choy deserves to be rallied around for her courage. "I hope as a profession we can defend our value and our role, we cannot give in," she said.

 

Jimmy Lai's Letter from Prison

Jimmy Lai released a handwritten a letter from prison

 

Two days ago Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying released a letter to his staff that he wrote from prison.

In it the 72-year-old media mogul encouraged them to "stand tall".

"Freedom of speech is a dangerous job," he wrote. "Please be careful not to take risks. Your own safety is very important.

Lai is charged with colluding with foreign forces

"As long as we are not blinded by unjust temptations, as long as we do not let evil get its way through us, we are fulfilling our responsibility."

Since the offices of Next Media were raided last August, the media has been under greater scrutiny. RTHK is now being led by a government appointee who has cancelled many programs he deemed unacceptable, and one of its freelance producers Bao Choy Yuk-ling was on trial for allegedly misrepresenting herself when applying for license plate information related to the Yuen Long attacks on July 21, 2019.

Lai said it was "a journalist's responsibility to uphold justice, but observed the situation in Hong Kong had deteriorated.

"It is precisely this that we need to love and cherish ourselves," he wrote. "The era is falling apart before us, and it is time for us to stand tall."

The police raided Next Digital offices last August

Lai is currently in jail awaiting trial to face national security charges of "colluding with foreign forces". 

He was convicted earlier this month for illegal assembly in the August 18, 2019 protest, and last week pleaded guilty to another on August 31 the same year. Sentencing for both convictions is this Friday, where Lai faces a maximum penalty of five years in jail.

In the letter Lai said his life in prison was peaceful and he spent time reading books, praying and doing exercise.

Indeed. We all must stand tall. 加油!

No Access to Freedom of Information Threatens Press Freedom

Less freedom to access information means less press freedom

Freedom of the press is being seriously threatened in Hong Kong with the government making it harder for reporters to get access to public information to hold individuals, organizations and companies accountable.

The media uses public records to find out the ownership of cars, properties, companies and even information of executives of public companies in order to determine who is responsible for certain actions or decisions, and now the government is proposing to shield these people.

In a proposal submitted to the Legislative Council on Monday, the Financial Services and Treasury Bureau said companies should be first given the option to withhold information, such as residential address and full identification numbers of directors and secretaries.

Choy was arrested for her investigative work

Then, from October 2022, all company documents submitted to the registry that contains "protected information",  such as residential addresses, can be hidden from public view.

The only people who can have access to this information are the executives themselves, their companies, officials and members of "public organizations".

By late 2023, all companies will be able to apply to withhold "protected information" from the registry.

The government is planning to submit this legislation to Legco in May.

Journalists use this information to do investigative stories, and they can verify hunches or tips by going through public records. 

After the July 21, 2019 attacks in Yuen Long, RTHK producer Bao Choy Yuk-ling and the investigative team went through the tons of video clips of the violent incident and found the alleged attackers rode in vehicles that trace back to community leaders in the New Territories.

So she went to the car registry to request information on the owners of those vehicles.

Choy traced the ownership of the van in 2019

These kinds of searches are considered routine for journalists, but not this time.

In November 2020 Choy was arrested on suspicion of making false statements under the Road Traffic Ordinance when requesting information on the ownership of the vehicles.

That is an attack on press freedom, and now this proposal by the government -- not by companies or organizations -- will further hinder the media's efforts to find out what is going on, who is responsible and connections between people.

This will prevent the media from finding out information of executives of public companies that are supposed to be transparent and accountable to shareholders.

It will also make it harder for the media to find corruption, to trace the movement of money, to find how much property a Chinese official or his offspring and relatives own in Hong Kong, what shell companies they hold and the vehicles they own.

As a result the Hong Kong Journalists Association is strongly opposed to the government's proposal, calling for its immediate withdrawal.

HKJA's Cheng says people have right to know

The association said the government should instead enact a freedom of information law -- as well as an archives law -- to protect the people's right to know.

HKJA also points out the proposal has no clause to allow journalists to find out information in a transparent way, and adds this kind of research is not just limited to the media, but also academics and investors doing research on public companies and want to know if it is worth investing in or not. This affects the free flow of information.

Hong Kong's financial system is based not only on rule of law, but also freedom of information and freedom of the press.

When both these are under threat, who will continue to feel comfortable in investing in Hong Kong if they cannot find out the information they need to make an informed decision?

The city government is shooting itself in the foot by doing this, but it is only following the lead of the mainland to become more opaque. And this will only lead to the fall of Hong Kong as a financial hub. The dismantling of institutions here continues its fast pace in 2021.

Picture of the Day: Rainbow

A beautiful rainbow at sunset in Kennedy Town today

 

It's been a crazy week. Four lawmakers disqualified after the National People's Congress Standing Committee claimed they did not uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR. The following day 15 of their colleagues resign en masse, leaving two independents as the only opposition.

The Hong Kong Bar Association and Law Society both question the legality of the NPCSC's decision and are asking for clarification.  

And then a freelance reporter with RTHK appeared in court to face charges of false declaration when she conducted registration searches on vehicles that were in videos related to the July 21 attack in Yuen Long last year. Bao Choy Yuk-ling was granted bail, and her case will be heard in court January 14.

As if that wasn't enough, the number of coronavirus cases keeps rising, though the majority are imported. But the government insists it needs to prevent a fourth wave from happening so now it will force "high risk groups" to do mandatory testing, restaurants are back to four to a table, bars and pubs to two, and these establishments must close by midnight.

Today I decided to nip downstairs to take a quick look at the sunset (now at 5.40pm), and after I took some pictures I turned around to see people taking pictures of the sky. I looked up and saw a brilliant rainbow! What a surprise and a happy one. 

I don't know how that rainbow appeared as there was no precipitation today that I know of. But I'll take it as a sign that things could get better soon.