Amid #HongKong government's crackdown on civil society organizations, the pro-#Beijing Wen Wei Po called for the authorities to regulate the city's press union @HKJA_Official, labelling it as an anti-government political organization that defends fake news.hongkongfp.com/2021/08/13/bei…
The state-controlled newspaper said: “HKJA shields violence and enable rumours, [HKJA’s] loss of morals should be regulated”.
The state-run paper slammed the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) for five “evil deeds,” including allegedly “slandering” the government, supporting “fake reporters,” and opposing “fake news” regulations floated by the government.
“The [HKJA] is supposed to protect the interests and rights of journalists,” the article read. However it is suspected of collaborating with fake reporters… wantonly smearing the Hong Kong government, the police and the national security law,...
... and inciting the public to oppose the local and central governments, ruining the industry’s reputation.”
The paper also took aim at the association’s leadership, listing alleged “bad actions” of HKJA chair Ronson Chan, executive members Deutsche Welle correspondent Phoebe Kong and Chloe Cheng, a student reporter at the Hong Kong Baptist University.
It accused Kong of “discrediting” the national security law in her reports for the German outlet after a video report said the national security law marked the “end” of One Country, Two Systems and had a “chilling effect” on activists, the press and ordinary citizens.
The HKJA chairperson refuted the article’s claims on Friday, saying the association had only two goals: protecting journalists’ rights and safeguarding press freedom.
“Wen Wei Po has made a false statement… we are trying to safeguard the freedom of press, which is we have to protect the rights of journalists,” Chan told HKFP.
He added that the association has never encouraged its members to engage in any political behaviour: “There is no political statement, no political movement, we never encouraged our members to do anything about politics.”
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