SCMP ponders future as China reins in HK media

HONG KONG • As news broke that China is pressuring billionaire Jack Ma's Alibaba Group to sell the South China Morning Post (SCMP), surprised employees pondered the future of Hong Kong's main English-language daily.

While the newspaper has come under steady criticism for a tilt towards Beijing under Alibaba, its journalists closely covered the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong while also publishing diverse opinions and coverage critical of China.

Now fears are growing among some staff members that a Chinese state-owned company could eventually take over from Alibaba and put the newspaper under Beijing's thumb, according to an employee who asked not to be identified.

Such a move would mark one of the most significant blows yet to the city's once free-wheeling media industry, where independent outlets have faced increasing pressure since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law last year.

"There is suspicion that if a Chinese entity takes it over, or a Chinese billionaire takes it over, that they're going to change the editorial line," said Professor Keith Richburg, director of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong and president of the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong.

"This idea that the SCMP might be sold at a time when people in Beijing are talking about the need for 'patriots' to be running media entities is, I would say, very, very concerning."

China in recent months has heaped pressure on Hong Kong journalists, most notably with the November arrest of media tycoon Jimmy Lai, founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, who remains in custody on a national security charge after being denied bail.

Police also conducted a high-profile raid of Apple Daily's newsroom and have arrested other executives from its publisher Next Digital.

Mr Ma, Alibaba's co-founder, has been at the centre of a government crackdown that began last year and targeted the e-commerce giant and its finance affiliate Ant Group. China's pressure on Ali-baba stems from a concern about the technology giant's influence over public opinion in the country, according to a person familiar with the matter.

While no buyer has been identified, it is expected to be a Chinese entity, the person said.

A Bloomberg investigation last year showed that the Communist Party has been amassing influence in Hong Kong via its ownership of newspapers and publishing houses via its Liaison Office in the city.

In an internal SCMP memo to staff on Tuesday, chief executive Gary Liu dismissed reports of Alibaba coming under pressure to sell its media assets.

Since the national security law came into force last year, media outlets have started to tread carefully out of fear of breaching vaguely defined provisions on subversion and secession. The government this month appointed a career bureaucrat with no media experience as director of public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong, which has seen programmes that were critical of the government censored or pulled.

On Jan 6, the same day that 55 democracy activists and former lawmakers were arrested, the national security department requested documents from Apple Daily, Stand News and In-Media.

The Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), a nonprofit digital news outlet that describes itself as impartial, has also come under attack.

This month, a magazine owned by Sing Tao News Corp, which last month came under the control of the daughter of a Chinese tycoon, devoted a four-page spread to insinuating that HKFP may have violated the national security law.

The worsening environment has prompted the news organisation to use only encrypted devices, check in with staff regularly and literally chain computers to the desks. "We expect to be forced to navigate increased bureaucratic and legal scrutiny," said Mr Tom Grundy, founder and editor-in-chief of HKFP, "though our current policy is to hope for the best, prepare for the worst and 'keep calm and carry on'."

"I'm prepared that I'll be arrested," said Mr Ronson Chan, deputy assignment editor of Stand News. "I am not prepared to leave Hong Kong or Stand News. Hong Kong needs us - Hong Kongers who still believe in the values of press freedom, especially in the wake of a growing mainland Chinese takeover."

BLOOMBERG