Blank Protest Full with Meaning

Ming Pao ran a picture of ginger, alluding to Keung Kwok-yuen

We appreciate that three Ming Pao columnists protested against the sacking of executive editor Keung Kwok-yuen earlier this week by submitting blank column spaces that ran.

In today's Life section, the paper ran empty spots by Audrey Eu Yuet-mee, founding leader of the Civic Party, and Eva Chan Sik-chee, a former Ming Pao journalist, with just headlines criticizing the decision to fire Keung on Wednesday.

Ng Chi-sum, a veteran media personality, also left his column blank, save for a line to explain his headline. It was quoted from a poem written by demonstrators of the 1976 Tiananmen Incident in protesting the removal of displays of mourning following Premier Zhou Enlai's death.

Today's blank spaces where columns should have ran

The line reads: "In my grief I hear demons shriek; I weep while wolves and jackals laugh."

The Ming Pao Staff Association reports that chief editor Chong Tien Siong had tried to stop running the blank columns.

In the association's Facebook post, it said Chong, who had been on leave, suddenly returned to work Saturday night and did not want to feature the blank columns, but this was already an hour after the pages had been typeset.

After discussions, the blank columns were kept, but an editor's note was included, reiterating the paper's decision to sack Keung was for cost-cutting purposes, and that the paper's editorial stance had not changed.

Because of this additional note, the pages had to be reprinted.

Blank pages in 2014 protested against Kevin Lau's dismissal

The association says it was very "angry" and "disappointed" with Chong's alleged attempt to obstruct freedom of expression, adding his decision to stop the printing process resulted in economic losses for Ming Pao.

The front page of the paper also featured a large piece of ginger, alluding to Keung, as his name in Cantonese is similar to the word ginger.

This is not the first time Ming Pao has run columns blank in protest.

When Chong replaced former chief editor Kevin Lau Chun-to in 2014, several writers, including Chan and Ng protested with empty spaces where their columns should have been.

It sounds like troubling times at Ming Pao have just escalated several notches -- a war between the chief editor and its staff are not a good thing. In the end, who will prevail?

HK Press Freedom Under Threat?

Chong (holding microphone) talked to staff this morning about the layoffs

Today is yet another bad day for press freedom in Hong Kong.

Ming Pao abruptly fired one of its top editors as well as some other editorial staff apparently because of budget cuts, but many don't see the financial excuse as the real reason.

Executive editor Keung Kwok-yuen and others were let go, and some staffers wondered if the move was meant to punish "dissidents of editorial decisions" like Keung.

Keung Kwok-yuen was a highly respected editor at Ming Pao

A Ming Pao Staff Association spokesperson said Keung was fired by his boss, chief editor Chong Tien Siong at midnight this morning with immediate effect.

"We are extremely angry and upset about it," the spokesperson said.

Keung could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile a Ming Pao Group spokesperson explained the company had little choice but to lay off staff, including senior personnel in business and editorial departments.

The cut in staff is a recurring refrain in Hong Kong media these days, particularly print. Earlier this month Sing Tao News Corporation announced a pay cut of up to 20 percent of its senior news executives.

During a meeting with Ming Pao staff, Chong described Keung as his "most competent aide", and that he and Keung were the best paid employees in the newsroom, and that he was prepared to go if management decided so.

Editor Kevin Lau Chun-to was also let go, back in 2014

Keung is known for covering politically sensitive issues, such as the July 1 protest march in 2003 against Article 23 where some half a million people came out to the streets, and the campaign against national education in 2012.

"We express our utmost regret that a veteran and objective journalist like Keung... was no longer [welcome] at Ming Pao," said a joint statement from the Hong Kong Journalists Association and six industry unions.

His dismissal comes after more news about Hong Kong tycoons named in the Panama Papers was reported on the front page of Ming Pao today.

Chong took over Ming Pao in 2014 and is said to be a close ally to owner, fellow Malaysian Tiong Hiew King, a pro-Beijing businessman. The staff were surprised by Chong's appointment because of his lack of local knowledge.

He replaced Kevin Lau Chun-to who was chief editor at the time; you may recall Lau was later attacked by men with choppers.

Newspaper staff held a "pens down" protest earlier this year

On Chong's first day, staff surrounded his office and asked him to sign a charter of press freedom. Reporters asked him if Ming Pao would turn into a pro-government newspaper, but he replied he didn't know because he wasn't the chief editor at the time.

Then in February last year, Chong changed the front page of the paper after midnight, from a report on confidential documents about Tiananmen in 1989 that was already approved by top-level editors -- to a story about Alibaba chief Jack Ma Yun.

He later explained the decision was made according to "the logic of news", that the report on the Tiananmen documents was unchanged and published on other pages. Chong never explained what he meant by "the logic of news"...

The union didn't accept this explanation and held a one-hour "pens down" protest.

It doesn't sound like Chong has made many friends at Ming Pao since he was brought in about two years ago. And firing yet another respected editor is not the way to win brownie points.

Is this the tipping point to lead to a mass exodus of staff? Or are economic conditions such that people don't have much choice, but to stay because they at least have a job?

Tough times.