Occupy Central
Occupy Central is a civil disobedience movement which began in Hong Kong on September 28, 2014. It calls on thousands of protesters to block roads and paralyse Hong Kong's financial district if the Beijing and Hong Kong governments do not agree to implement universal suffrage for the chief executive election in 2017 and the Legislative Council elections in 2020 according to "international standards." The movement was initiated by Benny Tai Yiu-ting (戴耀廷), an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, in January 2013.
Umbrella Movement
The Umbrella Movement (Chinese: 雨傘運動; pinyin: yǔsǎn yùndòng) is a loose political movement that was created spontaneously during the Hong Kong protests of 2014. Its name derives from the recognition of the umbrella as a symbol of defiance and resistance against the Hong Kong government, and the united grass-roots objection to the decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) of 31 August.
The movement consists of individuals numbering in the tens of thousands who participated in the protests that began on 28 September 2014, although Scholarism, the Hong Kong Federation of Students, Occupy Central with Love and Peace, groups are principally driving the demands for the rescission of the NPCSC decision.
The movement consists of individuals numbering in the tens of thousands who participated in the protests that began on 28 September 2014, although Scholarism, the Hong Kong Federation of Students, Occupy Central with Love and Peace, groups are principally driving the demands for the rescission of the NPCSC decision.
POST OCCUPY CENTRAL - DAY 44:
Full coverage of the day’s events
Squeeze put on Hong Kong press freedom
Beijing is openly interfering in city's media, says international organisation, and reporters have been subject to malicious persecution
Papers are accused of downplaying some news. Photo: Robert Ng
News coverage of the Occupy movement and allegations of corruption against Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying exposed different degrees of self-censorship among media, says a spokeswoman for the International Federation of Journalists.
At the same time, the central government has been "more frequently and openly" interfering with press freedom in Hong Kong, according to the federation's seventh annual China Press Freedom Report released yesterday.
"There were very worrying signs that the interference with press freedom was more frequent and obvious last year, compared to the past," said Serenade Woo, the federation's Asia-Pacific representative.
"The news reports concerning the Occupy movement have provided particularly obvious evidence that the mainland has extended its control of the media to Hong Kong. This trend is expected to continue with political reform remaining the focus in the coming year."
During the 79-day Occupy protest, 39 reporters complained of being harassed, attacked, detained or maliciously accused by police and anti-Occupy protesters, the report said.
Some reporters received hundreds of harassing phone calls, and a few said they received calls from interviewees giving instructions on how to write up events.
Last year, the chief executive was accused of corruption over a HK$50 million payment from engineering firm UGL in 2011 as part of a deal to take over his old company DTZ. Lai, owner of Apple Daily, was accused of corruption when leaks revealed alleged payments to pro-democrat politicians. Woo said some media downplayed or even ignored the scandal embroiling Leung while playing up the Lai allegations, and vice versa.
"I guess the public get to see the vastly different treatments over these incidents and can feel for themselves whether there is self-censorship among local media," he added.
The report also noted that 20 journalists were detained, charged and in some cases jailed on the mainland last year.
In 2013, Beijing set up a security committee to "strengthen guidance" of public opinion; the federation said this committee worked with police and courts to suppress online comment.
The police "respect press freedom and fully understand the importance of facilitating the media in their reporting activities", a statement from police said last night. It also advised journalists to be vigilant of their own safety when positioning themselves between officers and radical protesters and added no violent acts would be tolerated.
Chinese University journalism professor Clement So York-kee said he had observed abuse of local reporters during the Occupy movement, adding that his department was working with the Journalists' Association on a survey about press freedom.
Occupy Central protests blamed for increase of cyberbullying in Hong Kong
Complaints to watchdog soared last year with police and their families among targets and most incidents said to be political in nature
Allan Chiang says the soar in cyberbullying is an alarming trend which has been exacerbated by Occupy Central.
Complaints to the privacy watchdog about cyberbullying soared last year amid the Occupy Central protests and heightened political tensions in the city.
Technology-related complaints rose from 93 in 2013 to 206 last year, with a fourfold increase in cyberbullying, the privacy commissioner for personal data revealed.
At least 28 out of 34 complaints of cyberbullying - a fivefold increase from 2013 - were either related to the Occupy movement or of a "political" nature. Some police officers and their families were targeted, as well as Occupy supporters.
"This is an alarming trend which has been exacerbated by … cyberbullying involving the two opposing camps of the Occupy Central movement," commissioner Allan Chiang Yam-wang said. "Some internet users' behaviour in this regard clearly amounted to blatant misuse of personal data and serious invasion of privacy. Such behaviour should be condemned."
Overall, the commissioner's office received 1,702 complaints last year - a slight drop from the 1,792 in 2013 - mostly over unapproved use of personal information and data collection.
In one case, a real estate agent disclosed the home address of Scholarism founder Joshua Wong Chi-fung - a prominent figure in the 79-day Occupy civil disobedience movement - prompting 18 complaints from the public. But as the student group leader later clarified this was not his real address, the office did not pursue the case.
Chiang said cases of cyberbullying did not always "fit squarely within the bounds of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance".
"It may involve criminal intimidation, infringement of intellectual property rights and defamation … in [some] cases, you may need to approach police or make a civil claim," he said.
Most times, Chiang said, cases would close because complainants were not the actual victims of cyberbullying or there was simply a lack of evidence.
Complaints against banks and financial services still accounted for the bulk of all complaint cases last year followed by property management and telecoms companies.
Complaints over direct marketing calls dropped by half to 277 cases last year but were still flagged as a major issue.
The watchdog issued 20 warnings and 90 enforcement notices to organisations and 20 complaints were referred to police for criminal investigation. Just one conviction was made.
Chiang urged the government to implement section 33 of the ordinance, which would prevent personal data from being transferred across the border.
Occupy Central changed the way Hongkongers think, says artist
Birdy Chu's multimedia show, It's just the beginning, at the Goethe-Institut Hongkong, documents the democracy protests from different angles
IT’S JUST THE BEGINNING
Goethe-Institut Hongkong
Goethe-Institut Hongkong
Birdy Chu Shun is no stranger to tear gas assaults. A former journalist, Chu witnessed the 2005 anti-WTO protests by South Korean farmers in Wan Chai and, seven years later, the anti-Japanese demonstrations in Shenzhen. Tear gas was used on both occasions. But nothing stunned Chu as much as what happened on September 28, 2014, the day that kick-started the umbrella movement.
"The fact that the police fired tear gas at the Occupy Central protesters changed everything. It incubated what happened in the following months," says Chu, a photojournalist, videographer, and media lecturer at HKU Space Centre for Degree Programmes. "It triggered people's anger, which has more to do with the shock of what the police did than any physical pain inflicted."
Chu has a knack for capturing arresting visuals of the city's socio-political scene. In 2013, he published a book titled I walk therefore I shoot: a record of Hong Kong demonstrations. This time, the result of his chronicling the civil disobedience sit-ins is a multimedia exhibition at the Arts Centre.
The month-long show is made up of photography, short films and multimedia installations. Instead of using a straightforward documentary approach, Chu — using his graphic design background — gives all his works an artistic twist to enhance interest and pique contemplation.
A video playing on a television is called Can you hear the students speak? For this, the video footage and audio recordings were made separately. The interviewees stare directly into the camera and maintain static expressions, but on the audio soundtrack they talk passionately about their yearnings for democracy.
One wall is lined with student portraits collected from 50 people from different walks of life — the number is an allusion to Central government's futile "50 years unchanged" promise — as a tribute to the virtual support offered by the viral social media campaign.
Another wall features an installation Chu created using art pieces and handicrafts donated by protesters. "I documented the whole movement from many angles, and interviewed occupants who had unique ways of participating in all three districts. All this is shown in my short film, which will be projected in the Black Box Studio. I've concluded that there are many other possibilities for Hong Kong," says Chu.
"Hong Kong people are too obedient. Who says Hong Kong has to be the way it has been? The way that the protesters occupied roads has been transformative — who would have thought you could ever take a stroll up a flyover? This is essentially a city redesign. It is a way of thinking that can be expanded to a much broader scope. Politicians may see it as a threat, but for the rest of us, it's a breakthrough in the way we think about things," Chu says.
CY Leung’s daughter Chai-yan ‘lays her heart bare’ in first television interview
Leung Chai-yan, the eldest daughter of Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, promises to tell all about her relationship with her father when the she makes her first television appearance tonight in the first instalment of a seven-part interview on Cable TV.
The 23-year-old will “lay her heart bare” according to a preview of the interview, which airs over seven nights on entertainment news programmeCEN.
That relationship has come under the spotlight in recent weeks as Chai-yan, a law student at the London School of Economics, admitted she had suffered from depression and was “pretty familiar with the insides of a London ambulance”.
“People say that a major cause of depression comes from introverted anger. That’s why people cut themselves, because it’s an expression of anger and pain,” she told HK Magazine.
Chai-yan made headlines last June when she posted photos on her Facebook page showing cuts to her wrist and asked: “Will I bleed to death?” Her photos and comments were widely covered in the media. The chief executive and his wife then flew to London to visit her.
“If I could have a heart-to-heart with my parents, I would say that I want to feel loved. Not just be loved, but feel loved. There’s a difference,” she said.
Chai-yan told Chinese language magazine East Week that the incident in London was the first time she had ever hurt herself.
“That was when I was at the lowest point in my life. There were a lot of problems to deal with. I wanted to do something to attract my parents’ attention,” she said.
She also said the real her was “not that simple and innocent”, and was more of a rebel and self-willed.
She elaborates on that rebel persona in a media preview of the CENinterview released on Wednesday, when asked about the labels “material girl” and “Kong girl” given to her by the local press.
“I have many extravagant friends of ‘the rich second generation’,” she said. “When I was young, they would hold very extravagant birthday parties. But my father never let me join them.”
When host Natalie Mitchell asked about her relationship with parents, she said: “I sometimes squabble with them. Maybe I’m more westernised but they were very traditional. That’s why sometimes we held different opinions. Actually I’m very filial to them at the bottom of my heart.”
She added that she was a warm-hearted person, contrary to her cool reputation.
READ MORE: My dad is ‘the most competent man I’ve ever met’, says CY Leung’s daughter
Chai-yan caused a firestorm online last year after saying that the stabbing of a local newspaper editor was not an attack on press freedom and, in another case, bragging that she “used taxpayers’ money” to fund her shopping sprees.
And she caused ripples again last week when she described the beleaguered chief executive as “the most competent man she has ever met”.
“I have never met any other man in my life that is as competent, as hard working and self-disciplined as my father,” she told East Week.
“But for me, his life is too structured,” she added. “I feel he is just like a robot.”
Chai-yan drew a media mob when she appeared in the audience at a fashion show in Wan Chai last Friday, a month after saying she had applied to work as a model when an agency asked if she was interested.
Pan-dems give reform rumor short shrift
Pan-democratic lawmakers have reacted coolly to speculation that the government is willing to make concessions in the 2022 chief executive election under the restrictive political reform framework set out by Beijing last August.
Civic Party lawmaker Alan Leong Kah-kit said: "I don't think such rumors warrant any serious response at all."
If there is good news, the central government should explain to Hongkongers in "clearly articulated terms," he said.
Leong was responding to reports of government sources saying they are exploring possible amendments to the chief executive election nomination system. That could include increasing the number of sectors and members to the nomination committee, and raising the cap on the number of candidates from three to four.
However, Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing said the news will not change her decision to veto the package when it is tabled in the Legislative Council by the end of this year.
"For them to tell us, or a government source to say, `Oh, why don't you swallow this package which is not universal suffrage and then further down the road maybe there's a chance of making improvement,"' Lau said.
"This is not Beijing's undertaking to us and we will not accept this. The officials have not come out with this."
She also criticized government officials for hiding behind sources.
"[Government officials] dare not even come out to make these statements and they have to hide behind sources. I think this is ridiculous."
Civic Party lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah said the government is being "far too vague and far too general."
He added: "I think it would be far more comforting if the central government makes the necessary assurances to the people of Hong Kong."
City University public policy senior teaching fellow Cheung Chor- yung said the new proposals are not "attractive" enough for the pan- democrats to support Beijing. They are also "too vague," he said.
"In the end it is the central government who has the authority to do that, not the SAR government," Cheung said.
"So [Hong Kong government's] promises will not really be a guarantee there will be reform in 2022."
Civic man surprised by invite to liaison office reception
Pan-democratic lawmaker Dennis Kwok Wing-hang received a surprise invitation to attend the central government liaison office's spring reception.
The Civic Party lawmaker said he had accepted the invitation and will draft a letter to the National People's Congress chairman Zhang Dejiang opposing the introduction of the mainland's national security laws in Hong Kong.
Kwok, who represents the legal sector in the legislature, is the only pan- democrat invited to the reception at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Wednesday.
He said he will give the open letter to liaison office staff and ask them to pass it on to the director, Zhang Xiaoming.
"I believe that it will send a clear message [to Beijing] that the local legal sector and Hong Kong citizens will not accept the introduction of the national security law into Hong Kong," Kwok said. "Such a suggestion violates the Basic Law and the principle of `one country, two systems."'
NPC local deputy Stanley Ng Chau-pei sparked controversy last week by suggesting the mainland's national security laws should be applied to the city.
Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood lawmaker Frederick Fung Kin-kee said he had an invitation from the liaison office's Kowloon office to attend a different spring reception on February 27.
Fung said the office should instead invite all 70 lawmakers, including the 27 pan-democratic lawmakers, to the reception.
Kwok's party colleague, lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah said he did not think the liaison office was trying to get Kwok's support by inviting him as thousands of people would be in attendance.
City University political analyst James Sung Lap- kung said it is clear Beijing is trying to get Kwok to support the political reform proposal since he represents the legal sector.
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