Hong Kong’s pro-democracy laid-off journalists left with dark future
Journalists laid off after the folding of a number of outspoken news organizations since the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) imposed a ban on public dissent face an uncertain future amid dwindling freedom of expression in Hong Kong, they said on Tuesday.
A Jik, a former journalist at the now-disbanded Stand News, said she never expected the news website to fold, even after Jimmy Lai’s pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper was forced to fold after its assets were frozen amid an investigation into the paper’s opinion-writers under the national security law.
“Once they start arresting editors, then you start to worry about your boss, and whether that will also happen to them sooner or later,” A Jik said.
On Dec. 29, 2021, her worst fears were finally realized, as more than 200 national security police raided the offices of Stand News, seizing more than 30 boxes of material and arresting its former chief editor Chung Pui-kuen and acting chief editor Patrick Lam, as well as former pro-democracy lawmaker Margaret Ng, Cantopop star Denise Ho, Chow Tat-chi and Christine Fang, all of whom have served on the board of directors.
“You can imagine it 100 times or more, but on the day it actually happens, when you go to court and see your two bosses in the dock, and the court clerk reads out the charges one-by-one, saying how your organization instigated this or betrayed that, it’s a huge shock,” A Jik told agencies.
“You may never have thought of the things you were doing as criminal, until someone [denounces you] and you have suddenly somehow broken the law, and committed a very serious crime,” she said.
Stand News closed down on the same night as the raid, laying office its staff, and leaving A Jik out in the cold, wondering what to do next.
She has been focusing on meeting up with former colleagues, who go hiking, camping and rock climbing together, in a bid to reorient themselves in a world that has totally changed in just a few weeks.
“At least I know that there are others in the same boat; it would be disastrous if I had to go through this alone,” she said. “I’d just be wallowing in a world of hurt.”
She said they often orient themselves according to what their jailed friends, colleagues, opposition politicians and rights activists would want them to do.
“When you know that the people doing time want you to enjoy life, then you try to do as they say,” she said.
But she flinches from looking too closely at possible futures, as tens of thousands of young Hongkongers emigrate to seek better lives free from CCP political control and educational propaganda.
“I don’t think I’ll ever meet a group of people like this ever again; I still really want to work with them,” she said.
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES