HONG KONG: Hong Kong journalists rated the city’s press freedom lower than ever in an annual survey released on Tuesday, citing fears of sweeping national security laws.
Published every year since 2013 by the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) and the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (HKPORI), the Press Freedom Index ranks the city’s media environment on a zero-to-100 scale — 100 being a perfect score.
It is based on a poll of over 250 working journalists and around 1,000 members of the public.
The rating this year among journalists dropped to a record low of 25, down 0.7 points from last year and 17 points from the survey’s launch.
More than 90 percent of the surveyed journalists said the city’s press freedom was “significantly” impacted by a new security law enacted in March which punishes crimes like espionage and foreign interference.
Colloquially known as Article 23, it was the second such law enacted for the financial hub, following one imposed by Beijing in 2020 after Hong Kong saw massive, and at times violent, pro-democracy protests.
Ninety-four percent of journalists also cited the prosecution of media tycoon Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-shuttered Chinese news tabloid Apple Daily, under the first law as being “highly damaging” to press freedom.
Other concerns included the disappearance of South China Morning Post reporter Minnie Chan in Beijing.
HKJA had previously released a statement saying it was “very concerned” about Chan, an award-winning journalist, who has been unreachable since attending a security forum in Beijing last year.
For the public, the overall rating was 42.2 — largely stable after the last major drop from 45 in 2018 to 41.9 in 2019.
“This discrepancy may be explained by the relatively less heated discussion around Article 23 compared to the 2020 National Security Law,” HKJA said in a statement.
However, journalists are “more cognizant of potentially running afoul of the new crimes created by Article 23 when reporting.”
China’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that Hong Kong’s security laws “target a very small number of individuals who severely endanger national security, not law-abiding media reporters.”
Since the laws’ implementation, “press freedom in Hong Kong has been better protected under a safe and stable environment in accordance with the law,” spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing.
The index’s publication came weeks after HKJA’s newly elected chairperson Selina Cheng was fired by the Wall Street Journal after she took up the new role.
The Journal’s parent company Dow Jones declined to comment on Cheng’s case but said at the time that it “continues to be a fierce and vocal advocate for press freedom.”
Hong Kong press freedom sinks to record low: journalist survey
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Hong Kong press freedom sinks to record low: journalist survey
- The rating this year among journalists dropped to a record low of 25, down 0.7 points from last year and 17 points from the survey’s launch
UK to allow foreign states to own a 15 percent stake in newspapers
- Proposed media reforms could resolve the long-standing uncertainty surrounding the ownership of the Telegraph newspaper
- In 2023, Abu Dhabi-backed RedBird IMI assumed control of the Telegraph titles and The Spectator by helping repay the Barclay family’s £1.2 billion debt
LONDON: Britain plans to allow foreign state-owned investors to own up to 15 percent of British newspaper publishers, the government said on Thursday, as part of media reforms that could end long-running uncertainty over ownership of the Telegraph newspaper.
The government will also expand its powers to scrutinize media mergers to include news websites and news magazines.
“These important, modernizing reforms are about protecting media plurality and reflect the changing ways in which people are consuming news,” Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said.
“We are fully upholding the need to safeguard our news media from foreign state control whilst recognizing that news organizations must be able to raise vital funding.”
The ownership of the Telegraph, one of Britain’s best known newspapers, has raised questions about the independence of the media and foreign states buying political influence.
The government said “targeted exceptions” allowing certain sovereign wealth funds or pension funds to invest up to 15 percent in British newspaper and periodicals would help sustain the titles while also limiting any foreign influence in media.
The government does not plan to exempt debt financing, but warned that if a foreign power gains control through a default, it could trigger a ministerial intervention under existing rules.
Britain’s previous Conservative government last year banned foreign state investment in British newspapers, blocking RedBird IMI, run by former CNN boss Jeff Zucker and with the majority of its funding from Abu Dhabi, from owning the Telegraph.
Abu Dhabi-backed RedBird IMI took control of the Telegraph titles and the Spectator magazine in 2023 when it helped repay the Barclay family’s 1.2 billion pound ($1.6 billion) debt to Lloyds Bank.
It put the titles up for sale nearly a year ago. The Spectator was sold to hedge fund founder Paul Marshall in September, but the Telegraph has not found a buyer.
The 15 percent cap would allow Abu Dhabi to retain some ownership of the paper.
Israel’s presence still roils Eurovision a year after major protests over the war in Gaza
- About 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched Wednesday in the Swiss host city of Basel
- Oddsmakers suggest Raphael is likely to secure a place in Saturday’s final with her song “New Day Will Rise”
BASEL: Most contestants at the Eurovision Song Contest are seeking as much publicity as possible.
Israel’s Yuval Raphael is keeping a low profile.
The 24-year-old singer has done few media interviews or appearances during Eurovision week, as Israel’s participation in the pan-continental pop music competition draws protests for a second year.
Raphael is due to perform Thursday in the second semifinal at the contest in the Swiss city of Basel. Oddsmakers suggest Raphael is likely to secure a place in Saturday’s final with her anthemic song “New Day Will Rise.”
Israel has competed in Eurovision for more than 50 years and won four times. But last year’s event in Sweden drew large demonstrations calling for Israel to be kicked out of the contest over its conduct in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
More than 52,800 people in Gaza have been killed in Israel’s military offensive, according to the territory’s health ministry.
About 200 people, many draped in Palestinian flags, protested in central Basel on Wednesday evening, demanding an end to Israel’s military offensive and the country’s expulsion from Eurovision. They marched in silence down a street noisy with music and Eurovision revelry.
Many noted that Russia was banned from Eurovision after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“It should be a happy occasion that Eurovision is finally in Switzerland, but it’s not,” said Lea Kobler, from Zurich. “How can we rightfully exclude Russia but we’re still welcoming Israel?”
Last year, Israeli competitor Eden Golan received boos when she performed live at Eurovision. Raphael told the BBC that she expects the same and has rehearsed with background noise so she won’t be distracted.
“But we are here to sing and I’m going to sing my heart out for everyone,” she said.
Anti-Israel protests in Basel have been much smaller than last year in Malmo. Another protest is planned for Saturday in downtown Basel, 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the contest venue, St. Jakobshalle arena.
But concern by some Eurovision participants and broadcasters continues.
More than 70 former Eurovision contestants signed a letter calling for Israel to be excluded. Several of the national broadcasters that fund Eurovision, including those of Spain, Ireland and Iceland, have called for a discussion about Israel’s participation.
Swiss singer Nemo, who brought the competition to Switzerland by winning last year, told HuffPost UK that “Israel’s actions are fundamentally at odds with the values that Eurovision claims to uphold — peace, unity, and respect for human rights.”
At Wednesday’s protest, Basel resident Domenica Ott held a handmade sign saying “Nemo was right.”
She said the nonbinary singer was “very courageous.”
“If Russia couldn’t participate, why should Israel?” she said.
The European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, pointed out that Israel is represented by its public broadcaster, KAN, not the government. It has called on participants to respect Eurovision’s values of “universality, diversity, equality and inclusivity” and its political neutrality.
Meta faces row over plan to use European data for AI
- Its rollout on the continent was delayed by more than a year as a result of overlapping European regulations on emerging technologies
- Meta has been hit with multiple privacy complaints in Europe
VIENNA: A Vienna-based privacy campaign group said Wednesday it has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Meta, after the tech giant announced plans to train its artificial intelligence models with European users’ personal data.
The move comes after Meta said last month it would push ahead with plans to use personal data from European users of its Instagram and Facebook platforms for AI technology training from May 27, despite criticism over its legality.
Meta has been hit with multiple privacy complaints in Europe, but cited a “legitimate interest” to process personal data for AI training.
The privacy group, the European Center for Digital Rights — also known as Noyb (“None of Your Business“) — threatened to file an injunction or class-action lawsuit against Meta if it does not halt plans.
“Meta’s absurd claims that stealing everyone’s (personal) data is necessary for AI training is laughable,” Noyb founder Max Schrems said in a statement.
“Other AI providers do not use social network data — and generate even better models than Meta,” he added.
When Meta AI first launched in the European Union in late March, the tech giant was at pains to point out that the chatbot was not trained on data from European users.
Its rollout on the continent was delayed by more than a year as a result of overlapping European regulations on emerging technologies, including user data, AI and digital markets.
Following the complaints, Meta temporarily put its AI plans on hold in June 2024, before recently announcing it would go ahead with them.
“It is... totally absurd to argue that Meta needs the personal data of everyone that uses Facebook or Instagram in the past 20 years to train AI,” Schrems said, adding the plans were “neither legal nor necessary.”
“Meta simply says that (its) interest in making money is more important than the rights of its users,” he said, adding that users could simply be asked for their consent.
With about 400 million estimated Meta users in Europe, the approval of 10 percent of them would “already clearly be sufficient” for AI language training and the like, Schrems said.
Launched in 2018, Noyb has taken several court proceedings against technology giants, often prompting action from regulatory authorities.
Israeli strike on Gaza hospital kills wounded journalist, Hamas says
- Hamas said the strike killed a journalist and wounded a number of civilians
- The CPJ says at least 178 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it struck a Gaza hospital housing Hamas militants in a raid Tuesday that, according to the Palestinian group, killed a journalist wounded in an Israeli attack last month.
The strike, which Hamas said happened at dawn, ended a brief pause in fighting to allow the release of a US-Israeli hostage.
The military said in a Telegram post that “significant Hamas terrorists” had been “operating from within a command and control center” at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza’s main city.
“The compound was used by the terrorists to plan and execute terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF (army) troops,” it said.
In a statement, Hamas said the strike killed a journalist and wounded a number of civilians.
“The Israeli army bombed the surgeries building at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis at dawn on Tuesday, killing journalist Hassan Aslih,” said Gaza civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal.
Aslih, head of the Alam24 news outlet, had been at the hospital for treatment after being wounded in a strike on April 7, he told AFP.
Two other journalists, Ahmed Mansur and Hilmi Al-Faqaawi, were killed in that bombing, according to reports at the time.The Israeli military said the April strike had targeted Aslih, alleging he operated for Hamas “under the guise of a journalist.”
It said Aslih had “infiltrated Israeli territory and participated in the murderous massacre carried out by the Hamas terrorist organization” on October 7, 2023.
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the strike.It said Aslih had worked for international media outlets until 2023, when the pro-Israeli watchdog HonestReporting published a photo of him being kissed by then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
The CPJ says at least 178 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Israel and Lebanon since the start of the war.
Israel had paused military operations in Gaza to allow for the release of Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old US-Israeli soldier who had been held hostage since October 2023.
Alexander, believed to be the last surviving hostage with US citizenship, was released Monday ahead of a Middle East visit by US President Donald Trump.
Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce in its war against Hamas, which was triggered by the Palestinian group’s October 7 attack.
The attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Monday at least 2,749 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,862.
600+ film and media insiders sign open letter demanding BBC airs delayed Gaza documentary
- Actors Susan Sarandon, Indira Varma, Miriam Margolyes, Maxine Peake and Juliet Stevenson among those calling for immediate broadcast of ‘Gaza: Medics Under Fire’
- The film was delayed pending an investigation into another documentary, “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone,” after it emerged the narrator of that film is the son of a Hamas official
DUBAI: More than 600 prominent figures from the film and media industries have signed an open letter urging the BBC to broadcast the delayed documentary “Gaza: Medics Under Fire.”
The signatories include actors such as Susan Sarandon, Indira Varma, Miriam Margolyes, Maxine Peake and Juliet Stevenson, along with journalists, filmmakers and other industry professionals. One-hundred-and-thirty of them chose to remain anonymous; at least 12 were said to be BBC staff members.
The letter, addressed to BBC Director General Tim Davie, states: “Every day this film is delayed, the BBC fails in its commitment to inform the public, fails in its journalistic responsibility to report the truth, and fails in its duty of care to these brave contributors.
“No news organization should quietly decide behind closed doors whose stories are worth telling.”
The film was originally scheduled to air in January. BBC bosses said they decided to delay it while an investigation is carried out into another documentary, “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone,” which was pulled from the schedules when it emerged that the narrator of that film is the son of a Hamas official.
Samir Shah, chairperson of the BBC, said this revelation was “a dagger to the heart of the BBC’s claim to be impartial and to be trustworthy” and that was why he and fellow board members were “determined to ask the questions.”
The writers of the letter said: “This is not editorial caution. It’s political suppression. The BBC has provided no timeline, no transparency. Such decisions reinforce the systemic devaluation of Palestinian lives in our media.”
“Gaza: Medics Under Fire” production company Basement Films said in the letter that it was “desperate for a confirmed release date in order to be able to tell the surviving doctors and medics when their stories will be told.”
The document concluded with a demand for the film to be released “NOW.”
A spokesperson for the BBC told Variety magazine the documentary will be broadcast “as soon as possible,” but the organization had taken “an editorial decision not to do so” while there was an “ongoing review” of the other Gaza-related film.
