The cumulative impact of nearly a decade of Chinese pressure on the media has persuaded some of Hong Kong's best Chinese journalists to quit journalism, Vines said. Others have sought refuge by moving away from political reporting in the hope that covering more "neutral" subjects will offer a modicum of protection. "They know that if they go out on a limb and pursue stories which China finds hard to stomach they will get little backing from their bosses. The reality is that they are caught, not between a rock and a hard place but between a rock and an abyss."
When the Ming Pao journalist Xi Yang was arrested in 1993 and subsequently sentenced to twelve years in prison for "stealing state secrets", we know that "Mr. Xi's 'crime' was to publish a story on interest and gold prices which had already appeared in Hong Kong's pro-China papers. Mr. Xi was released six months before the handover but the message of his arrest was well understood and encouraged a number of journalists to vote with their feet and quit their trade."
In theory they have no reason to do so. The Basic Law is quite explicit on the subject of press freedom. Article 27 of the Law states: "Hong Kong residents shall have freedom of speech, of the press and of publication." Three months before the handover further reassurance was given by Zeng Jianhui, the director of the State Council's Information Office in Beijing. He insisted that information and propaganda offices in Hong Kong and China "will not be subordinate to each other and will not interfere with each other". He added, "The mainland authorities will not use the media measures adopted in this country to manage the press in Hong Kong."
But Vines said "On the surface, Mr. Zeng's remarks sounded reassuring but, as ever, there was a sting in the tail. He made it clear that China reserved the right to censure and condemn 'irresponsible' or 'false news reports'. What could this mean?"
China was reluctant to spell out ways in which it intended to undermine Article 27 of the Basic Law but it had been sending out some pretty clear signals well before the handover. In August 1995 representatives from the Hong Kong Newspaper Society, a publishers' association, traveled to Beijing to seek assurances of continued press freedom. These were duly delivered but immediately qualified by the Vice-Premier, Qian Qichen, who at the time had overall responsibility for Hong Kong affairs. Mr. Qian said that he wanted the media to observe three guidelines: first, to promote a 'loving China and Hong Kong spirit', second, to confine news reporting to a basis of 'fact', and third, to handle news in an ethical and responsible way.
What this meant had been unwittingly spelled out five months earlier by Wu Gaofu, the director of the Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao News Research Center, based at the University of Wuhan in central China. 'There must be some form of control over the Hong Kong media after 1997,' he said. 'It is impossible for there not to be. Just like here in China, where we have both central and local control over every locality.'
