Document #1446880
RSF – Reporters Sans Frontières (Author)
SCMP, the long-standing Hong Kong English-language newspaper founded in 1903, has been subject to growing influence from Beijing since its acquisition by Chinese conglomerate Alibaba in 2016. Early this year, SCMP took part in a parody of interview, staged by Beijing, with Swedish journalist Gui Minhai who has been arbitrarily detained in China for three years.
RSF reasserts that an editorial meeting, where news pitches and their treatments are discussed, is a sensitive occasion.
“Against the backdrop of growing interferences from Beijing, which poses a threat to press freedom in Hong Kong, it was natural that the journalists would perceive the officials’ presence as a form of intimidation, said Cédric Alviani, Director of the RSF East Asia Office, who urges the managers of SCMP “to be vigilant about anything that might call into question the editorial independence of journalists.”
In a recent report, the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) denounced a new fall in press freedom in the former British colony. Originally placed 18th at the creation of the RSF World Press Freedom Index in 2002, Hong Kong is now ranked 70th out of 180.