Hong Kong's role as a media center and a press freedom heaven has continued with little change under the new dispensation. Human rights observer Michae1 Davis of Chinese University of Hong Kong has said that one important measure of press freedom will be Chinese treatment of dissident publications. "Hong Kong is the one China-language press that regularly confronts Beijing", Davis said. "Watch China Rights Forum and other such publications to see how they fare. That will be a test."
China Rights Forum, a small independent magazine published by the group Human Rights in China, has had no trouble, according to director Sophia Woodman. "As far as how things are going here, nothing seems very different," she said in later August. In addition, according to Woodman, Beijing Spring, a Chinese dissident magazine produced in the United States, is still on Hong Kong newsstands.
Writing in the International Herald Tribune in late August, Philip Bowring, the former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review, said he saw Hong Kong's media little changed after the transition. "Although there was an evident increase in media self-censorship in the months leading up to the handover," Bowring wrote, "the situation has not become worse. Indeed, there are signs of greater determination now to exercise old freedoms and test the new limits. Commentators may be wary of being too rude about leaders in Beijing, but, they are familiar enough with many of Mr. Tang's acolytes to feel free to display their views, and some Times their contempt " (4)
In a Joint Report, The Hong Kong Journalists Association and ARTICLE 19, June 1998 said: "Yet, we remain skeptical. It, has only been one year since the return to China, but, in this time we have already seen - as a direct consequence of the handover - that freedom of expression, assembly and association have been restricted by law. National Security principally the sensitive issue of the advocacy of independence for Taiwan and Tibet, is now legally a consideration in whether demonstrations are permitted, while new laws which criminalise the desecration of flags have already made their impact. The new legal and political framework for freedom of expression is taking shape, as it, is being circumscribed. And we have yet to see what the SAR government has in mind for new legislation prohibiting treason, sedition, subversion and secession, as required under Article 23 of the Basic Law. The tone set so far suggests we must prepare for further restrictions.
