By James Pomfret
HONG KONG (Reuters) – U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia stated on Friday it had closed its Hong Kong bureau citing issues over employees security after the enactment of a brand new nationwide safety legislation often known as Article 23 within the China-ruled metropolis.
“Actions by Hong Kong authorities, together with referring to RFA as a ‘overseas drive’, increase severe questions on our capacity to function in security with the enactment of Article 23,” Bay Fang, its president stated in an announcement.
The legislation got here into impact on March 23 after it was unanimously handed by Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing legislature, updating a broader China-imposed nationwide safety legislation in 2020.
It comes with stiffer punishments from a number of years as much as life for crimes together with treason, sedition, state secrets and techniques, espionage and exterior interference.
Critics just like the U.S. authorities say the legislation offers authorities broader powers to clamp down on dissent. Beijing says the legislation is important to revive order to the monetary hub after mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.
The closure of RFA’s bureau and the removing of full-time employees is an indication of eroding media freedoms in Hong Kong, critics say, and displays issues amongst some companies and entities with hyperlinks to overseas governments that they could be weak below the brand new legal guidelines.
(RFA) was “among the many final unbiased information organizations reporting on occasions taking place in Hong Kong in Cantonese and Mandarin”, RFA’s Fang added.
Lately, liberal Hong Kong media shops just like the Apple (NASDAQ:) Day by day newspaper, Stand Information and Residents’ Radio have been pressured to close down below strain from authorities.
The Apple Day by day’s writer and pro-democracy advocate Jimmy Lai, 76, is now on trial for allegedly endangering nationwide safety and publishing seditious supplies – a landmark case that would see him jailed for all times.
The Hong Kong authorities stated in an emailed response to Reuters that it might not touch upon RFA’s choice, however it “condemn(s) all scaremongering and smearing remarks”.
“To single out Hong Kong and recommend that journalists would solely expertise issues when working right here however not in different international locations could be grossly biased, if not outrageous,” it added.
In latest weeks, Hong Kong authorities have issued statements criticising some worldwide media shops together with the BBC for his or her reporting on the brand new safety legislation, whereas stressing they proceed to respect media freedoms.
Media rights group Reporters With out Borders (RSF) ranked Hong Kong one hundred and fortieth out of 180 in its annual world media freedom index in 2023, down from 73 earlier than the 2020 safety legislation.
In January, the Hong Kong police criticised RFA for an interview with an exiled activist, Ted Hui, saying it mustn’t present a platform for Hui to slander the police.
RFA had been working its Hong Kong bureau since 1996, a yr earlier than the previous British colony reverted to Chinese language rule.