According to a 1990 survey of 552 Hong Kong journalists, 95 percent regarded "objective reporting" as an important media function and 88 percent considered it important for the media to "serve as a watchdog of government." (7)
Although an overwhelming majority of Hong Kong journalists think that the news media should serve as a watchdog of government, many journalists were practicing self-censorship in order to curry favor with and avoid coercive pressure from China as 1997 approached. (8) In a recent study of Hong Kong press, Lee and Chu in 1998 reported several cases of overt and covert self-censorship concerning news coverage of China. Chan, Ma and So in 1997 also reported that some media watchers have observed the omission of columns critical of China, the adoption of more conciliatory editorial stand towards China, and even the avoidance of commenting on China affairs. A survey of 553 Hong Kong journalists in 1996 found that many journalists perceived their colleagues as being afraid to criticize China but think of themselves as being more courageous.
In view of the growing influence of China and the tendency for Hong Kong media to self-censorship, Lee and Chu (1995, 1998) postulated that the Hong Kong media after the handover "would develop from a relatively liberal system to a relatively repressive system, under which the press serves more as conveyor of government policies and directives than a mouthpiece of the people and watchdog."
In July 1997, 8,423 media professionals of 778 media outlets from around the world came to Hong Kong to cover the return of the colony to China. A group of researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong seized the opportunity to compare how media from different nations portrayed the Hong Kong handover and to examine the processes by which it was framed. (9) They found that media from various countries covered the Hong Kong handover according to the home base factors and vested interest. Some seemed to hope for the worst: that the Peoples' Liberal Army would have to fire on protesting demonstrators.
They observed that the Chinese media's main concern was to orchestrate a national union through Hong Kong's return to China. In contrast, the British media handled the handover coverage by emphasizing the British legacy left in Hong Kong, and the dignified retreat of a Britain, which would continue to stand up as a freedom protector for Hong Kong. The Taiwanese media hailed the handover as a national achievement, but painted an uncertain future for Hong Kong with an emphasis on the future of Taiwan. As to the American media, Hong Kong was portrayed as an exotic orient, whose democracy and human rights were being threatened. (10)
