(CCPJ/IFEX) – The following is a statement signed by press freedom, human rights and journalists’ organizations worldwide in support of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), which will call for press freedom in Hong Kong and China on World Press Freedom Day. The statement is to be released by HKJA locally on 3 May 1998 […]
(CCPJ/IFEX) – The following is a statement signed by press freedom, human
rights and journalists’ organizations worldwide in support of the Hong Kong
Journalists Association (HKJA), which will call for press freedom in Hong
Kong and China on World Press Freedom Day. The statement is to be released
by HKJA locally on 3 May 1998 with its own statement.
The statement follows:
3 May 1998
On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, 3 May 1998, we, the 13
undersigned press freedom, human rights and journalists’ organisations,
sincerely urge the authorities in Hong Kong and all of China to exercise
their authority to ensure that press freedom is promoted and protected
throughout the land. On this day, we would like to express our solidarity
with the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) and make common cause in
calling for press freedom throughout Hong Kong and China.
We are gravely concerned about the erosion of press freedom in Hong Kong
since China regained control on 1 July 1997 and urge that this deterioration
be halted before it worsens. We further ask that authorities actively
protect and promote the professional and personal welfare of journalists and
other independent media personnel working in all of China so as to allow for
a truly free and independent press.
World Press Freedom Day falls on 3 May to mark the anniversary of the
adoption of the Declaration of Windhoek, a document signed in 1991 to
promote and protect media freedom, independence and plurality in Africa.
Similar declarations have been signed in other regions of the world,
including Asia, where the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has organised seminars for independent media.
The day was officially chosen in 1993 by the United Nations General Assembly
to celebrate and promote press freedom worldwide. We have chosen to issue
our plea on this day as a reminder of the importance of freedom of
expression in the growth of democracy in any nation.
We also remind the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities that, as noted in
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “everyone has the
right to freedom of opinion and expression,” and hope they will respect this
right in the name of democratic rule and justice. This year marks the
fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration, and we seek progress on freedom of
speech and expression in this year, rather than a decay of these principles.
In particular, we are perturbed about the growing threats to democracy in
Hong Kong since it has come under Chinese rule. For example, we have serious
questions about article 23 of the Basic Law, which governs Hong Kong. The
new legislature, which is due to be formed on 24 May, will enact this
article so as to prohibit treason, sedition, theft of state secrets, and
related activities. We join the HJKA in opposing this move because we are
certain that such legislation can only threaten freedom of expression and
press freedom in Hong Kong. There have also been a number of attacks on the
individual and collective rights of reporters in Hong Kong.
We are further concerned about ongoing press freedom violations in China,
which continue unabated, despite a willingness to implement other signs of
progress, such as economic reforms. Not least is the detention of a number
of journalists and writers who have been unfairly imprisoned for carrying
out their profession. Among those is Gao Yu, a journalist who was honoured
with the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in 1997. This prize
is awarded on World Press Freedom Day to recognise an individual who has
suffered in the name of press freedom. Gao Yu, who has been imprisoned since
1993, is one of at least ten journalists, and many other writers and poets
who languish in China’s jails or prison camps. She was sentenced to six
years for “leaking state secrets” about China’s structural reform program to
the Hong Kong magazine “Mirror Monthly”. We are seriously concerned about
Gao Yu’s health, which is deteriorating in prison, and we urge you to
release her and other journalists and writers who are unfairly imprisoned
immediately.
While we welcome the release of writers and democracy activists such as Wang
Dan and Wei Jingsheng, we protest that they were allowed their freedom only
at the price of going into exile. These efforts to silence freedom of
expression in China do not go unnoticed.
We are among the many press freedom, human rights and journalists’
organisations worldwide which have been monitoring the state of freedom of
expression in Hong Kong since the handover, and we will continue to be
vigilant. We support the aims of the independent media and organisations
like the HKJA in their pursuit of press freedom in Hong Kong and all of
China.
Canadian Committee to Protect Journalists, Canada
Committee to Protect Journalists, United States
Commonwealth Journalists Association, United Kingdom/Canada
Free Media Movement – Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka
Freedom House, United States
Human Rights Watch
International Federation of Journalists, Belgium
PEN American Center, United States
PEN Canada, Canada
Reporters sans frontieres, France
World Association of Newspapers, France
World Press Freedom Committee, United States
Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN, United Kingdom
