This blog is authored by Nina Cheung, Director of Hong Kong Media Overseas.
As a Hong Kong journalist who has worked in this industry for almost three decades, I consider myself very lucky to have witnessed the golden age of a vibrant and free media, especially in the lead-up to the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from British colonial administration to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
In 1996, a year before the handover, I covered protests outside the Xinhua News Agency Hong Kong Branch (新華社), which served as China’s control centre before this role was assumed by the Hong Kong Liaison Office (中聯辦). Activists like Leung Kwok-hung (梁國雄), also known as ‘Long Hair’ (長毛), and members of the democratic camp held sit-ins outside the premises, calling for the release from imprisonment of prominent figures of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, such as the late Nobel Peace Prize-winner Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波).
I must admit that, though I knew the action was related to freedom of expression, which journalists and the public should value, I felt that I was recording someone else’s struggle. Never in a million years would I have thought that Hong Kong would face the same predicament: repression of freedom of expression, press freedom, and media self-censorship. Indeed, I took freedom in Hong Kong for granted because these very basic rights were ostensibly protected by law.
This starkly contrasts with the current climate, in which it is by no means far-fetched to imagine that someone holding a peaceful sit-in outside the HKSAR government buildings or the Liaison Office, perhaps calling for the release of Jimmy Lai (黎智英), the founder of Apple Daily (蘋果 日報) imprisoned under the 2020 National Security Law, would be arrested.
Having seen the situation deteriorate in Hong Kong, I am now a diaspora journalist pursuing my career overseas, and a member of Hong Kong Media Overseas (HKMO) (香港海外傳媒協會) — the UK-based advocacy organisation for Hong Kong press freedom founded two years ago by journalists who have left Hong Kong. This affiliation has afforded me valuable opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals in Circle 19, an advocacy group dedicated to promoting the free flow of information within the PRC and Hong Kong.
Circle 19 is a network of Chinese diaspora and international organisations aiming to preserve the people of China and Hong Kong’s historical right to freedom of information, even if that record — the keeping of which is essential for the future of the PRC — must for now be preserved in exile. It takes its name from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrines the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
Circle 19 is supported by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which last weekend released its annual World Press Freedom Index, ranking Hong Kong in 140th position out of 180 countries and territories, five places lower than 2024. RSF said the drop in the ranking was primarily due to the convictions of Stand News editors Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam for sedition last August. China dropped six ranks to 178th in the world, behind only North Korea and Eritrea.
Membership of Circle 19 offers opportunities for Hong Kong diaspora media workers to gain insights from Chinese journalists in exile. This valuable exchange not only widens HKMO’s network but also encourages solidarity among different concerned groups globally fighting to protect freedom of expression.
Recognising this interconnectedness, it is clear that no one is free until everyone is free. Under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, both Hong Kong and China share the same destiny in terms of fighting for freedom from fear. Hence, the more journalists from both places work together, the greater our ability to safeguard our homes and the media colleagues who are still doing their job as best they can in Hong Kong.
Nina Cheung is writing under a pseudonym to protect their identity.
