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
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.
Chai-yan gave her first television interview to Cable TV show CEN. Photo: SCMP Pictures
“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.
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”.
Natalie Mitchell interviews Leung Chai-yan. Photo: SCMP Pictures
“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.
