Thread by @rachel_cheung1

The police raid at @appledaily_hk, the only pro-democratic paper in #HongKong, on Monday was shocking. But across the town, a major shake-up occurred at the newsroom of broadcast station iCable, which is equally alarming. latimes.com/world-nation/s…

There had been rumours that the former news director Fung Tak-hung would soon be let go. The surprise came at his replacement: not one, but three new appointed media executives, all of whom have far less experience in running a newsroom. E.g. Oscar Lee, the new director of news

is best known for being an anchor/parenting KOL. He was mocked for this interview with police chief in March.
At 0:50 Tang said he realised the pressure was beyond what he expected. Lee's follow up question: Is the pressure more than you had expected?
facebook.com/watch/?v=88221…

Other questions he asked:
- Did you take any days off since you became police chief?
- Your style of leadership is that you're very involved. You do what your subordinates do and you fight alongside them. That's why you were also present at the site of conflict, yes?

Executive director Edna Tse and news director Anderson Chan both used to work at now-defunct ATV, which the family of Chiu Tat-cheong owned in 80s and Chiu is a major investor of iCable since 2017. In 2011, Chan falsely reported that former Chinese president Jiang Zemin had died.

The parachute appointments couldn't have come at a more sensitive time. A similar move occurred at another pay-television network Now TV last month, where three senior staff from pro-establishment broadcast station TVB were appointed to lead the newsroom. news.mingpao.com/pns/%E6%B8%AF%…

“The purpose is to control the highest authority in the newsroom and leverage that power to influence the direction and agenda of news coverage,” said Allan Au, a media and political commentator in Hong Kong.

iCable, however, is a typical example of how Chinese authorities have gradually exerted control over local press through behind-the-scenes changes in ownership, personnel appointments and budget cuts. While the appointments mark a dramatic escalation, staff said iCable decline...

began since the network was bought by new investors - Hong Kong real estate moguls Henry Cheng Kar-shun and David Chiu Tat-cheong in 2017. Executive director Ronald Chiu was replaced by Fung Tak-hung in 2019, who is very hands-on and is known to edit scripts and videos himself.

The cases of censorship are often very subtle, which means, outside of the newsroom and journalism industry, people won't be able to notice the changes that take place. But reporters push back at every thing they saw. Last year, Fung tried to postpone the publishing of a series..

on the 30th anniversary of June Fourth Tiananmen Square incident till after June. Then this year, he cut quotes from an interview with Tiananmen mother, where she warned that national security law is a threat to freedom of speech in #HongKong.

This New Year's eve, an editor took out the upsound to a story on the countdown where people shouted the protest slogan "Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Time" and replaced it with archival footage of people shouting numbers instead. This is before: facebook.com/watch/?v=50360…

This is after: facebook.com/watch/?v=57232… Watch and compare for yourself. When reporters confronted him, the editor - who has not left - claimed he did not know it was archival footage.

Another alarming phenomenon that happens across the industry is journalists leaving in droves because of the poor working environment and low pay. At iCable, average salary for new reporters is around HK$13,000. Salary increase each year is no more than several hundred.

At the iCable's China reporting team, once known for its exclusive stories, eight of 12 members resigned in the last 3 years, many of which have many years of experience. All were replaced with fresh graduates. At News Lancet, a programme dedicated to investigative reporting...

and notable for its damning reports of the government, the team of 8 dwindled to two in July since the appointment of a new leader, among those who left were seasoned reporters with nearly a decade of experience and former manager of the team.

“Even if they don’t aggressively censor, we still could not maintain our old journalistic standards, because the worsening media environment has led to an exodus of talents," said a former reporter.

Under Fung, some reporters/editors shied away from controversial topics, while others toned down language of their scripts. Instead of following leads and researching new stories, they were preoccupied with tasks such as typing subtitles and managing social media accounts.

Pressure from the owners was felt in the newsroom. Two former staff members said they witnessed the news director receive angry calls from the company’s board. Some were disappointed at Fung, who was once known for his professionalism and groomed many reporters in the industry.

“It feels very draining when most of your time is spent on a futile fight resisting the collapse of the institution instead of doing actual journalism. I feel like I am fighting alone. I want to leave, but with similar scenes playing out across newsrooms in HK, where can I go?”

What does the fact that even someone like Fung has to leave?
"The authorities no longer allow anyone that thinks critically, has opinions and experience to hold a position of power in the newsroom," says Allan Au.

"If he is also considered not red (pro-government) enough, you can only imagine what will happen next," says a reporter.

CORRECTION: He has left the company***

Back to Apple Daily, among themselves, staff reporters often joke that they would rather “be handcuffed and marched to police vehicles like prostitutes caught in a raid than be deserters” when the paper is under attack. That scene usually looks like this:

Chan has run through drill of getting arrested many times and mentally prepared for years in jail, learning from experience of imprisoned activists. To protect his sources, he routinely clears the chat history on his phone and memorises the Telegram handle of his contacts.

He also put into words the greatest challenge of being a journalist in HK, which is not the worsening media climate, low pay, high risk or long hours. "Nothing compares to the mental torment. In our role, we witness a lot of people getting injured and making sacrifices..

And they are things that they should not have suffered. But at the same time, we have to admit there is nothing we can do to save them or deliver them from evil. And that is where we feel the most powerless. And it's something we have to learn to live with in this era."

He has no other explanation for why he does what he does, only the same words: "this is my duty." But he admits, each day, the words sink in deeper and the words feel a little heavier.