HK sending letters to foreign media over negative coverage

HONG KONG • From Slovakia to Japan, top Hong Kong officials have fired off at least 500 letters blasting critical foreign media coverage, as the city wages a global battle to safeguard its reputation as a liberal financial hub.

At least 174 media outlets in almost 30 countries have received missives from the city's leaders - including its Chief Executive, Mr John Lee - since China announced in May 2020 that it would impose a national security law on the former British colony.

The correspondence, often written both in English and the publication's native language, was uploaded to the "Clarifications" tab of the government's communications platform known as Brand Hong Kong.

About half of the letters, which responded to a mix of reports and editorials, hit back at criticism of Beijing's sweeping security law, while roughly a third defended a mandate that only Communist Party loyalists can hold office in the city.

Neighbouring Asian nations received 42 per cent of the complaints, led by Japan and South Korea, while business publications including the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Economist got the most letters. Bloomberg received seven.

One response to a Wall Street Journal editorial last December from Mr Lee, who was then the city's No. 2 official, said the paper had "reached new levels of nastiness" while denying that the arrest of journalists at now-defunct pro-democracy publications Stand News and Apple Daily showed a decline in press freedom.

In a response to a Bloomberg opinion piece on July 16 about human rights and freedoms, Hong Kong's Chief Secretary for Administration Chan Kwok-Ki said they are fully protected by law in the city. He said the Basic Law, the constitutional document of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, provides a constitutional guarantee for fundamental rights and freedoms.

Mr Gilford Law, director-general of Hong Kong's trade office in London, warned The Sunday Times in a December letter that inciting another person not to vote was a criminal offence under the city's Elections Ordinance, irrespective of whether the act took place abroad.

An editorial in the newspaper said boycotting last year's Legislative Council elections would be the only chance of democratic victory, after opposition activists were denied approval to run.

Hong Kong's press freedom ranking has plummeted since the security law clamped down on free speech. The city came in at 148th spot in the Reporters Without Borders 2022 World Press Freedom Index, representing a fall of 68 places from last year. Twenty years ago, the city sat in 18th place.

Mr Lee, a former top security official who took power on July 1, has said he would dispatch ministers around the world in an effort to restore the city's global reputation.

"We shall make good use of our discourse power to tell a good Hong Kong story and tell the achievements and real truth about the success of Hong Kong," Mr Lee said at his inauguration, echoing language used by Mr Xi.

While opposition voices had been suppressed in Hong Kong's local media, international outlets were problematic for the government, according to professor of law and international affairs Michael Davis at O.P. Jindal Global University in India.

"Press freedom either no longer exists or is hanging by a thread," said Prof Davis, a former law professor at the University of Hong Kong.

"The only bright spot is that honest foreign coverage can still penetrate the city."

BLOOMBERG