Thousands Rally for Press Freedoms in Hong Kong

Feb. 23, 2014 6:42 a.m. ET

A protester carrying a placard talks on a mobile phone during a march for press freedom in Hong Kong on February 23, 2014. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Thousands of residents in Hong Kong rallied Sunday to protest what they see as waning press freedoms in this Chinese city.
According to organizers, more than 6,000 demonstrators—including reporters, college students and retirees—rallied under blue skies by the edge of Victoria Harbour. Police put the number at closer to 2,200 at its height. Crowd estimates from police and organizers usually vary widely in Hong Kong.
The rally is part of continued unease in Hong Kong about the influence of mainland China, which controls the former British colony under a one-country, two-systems agreement. In a report earlier this month, the Committee to Protect Journalists said that Hong Kong’s traditionally freewheeling press was under attack, citing past violent incidents against the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, and rising rates of self-censorship.
Karen Kwok, a cable-television reporter at the rally who attended alongside at least 10 colleagues, said the future of freedoms “depends on what kind of fight we put up.”
“If we don’t speak up, of course it will only get worse,” she said, as she stood before a wall of blue ribbons that protesters had tied to the fence surrounding the government’s office.
A government spokesman said the city was committed to continuing to guard freedom of speech and freedom of the press, as the two are “major elements in sustaining Hong Kong’s status as an international metropolis.”
Hong Kong’s global press-freedom ranking this month slipped three places to No. 61 this year, according to the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders. Anger in Hong Kong has also been simmering since the start of the year over the ousting of a top editor at the well-regarded Ming Pao newspaper, which many staff believed was politically motivated.
One local magazine reporter who marched on Sunday said he believed Chinese authorities were increasing pressure on Hong Kong publications as calls for political reform mount in advance of 2017, the year that Beijing has said is the earliest local residents can begin directly electing their leader.
In particular, he said, he had been personally pressured by his editors to ensure that any print references to “Occupy Central”—a plan to occupy the city’s financial district to demand full universal suffrage—were accompanied by language emphasizing the potentially destructive impact of such a movement.
“I definitely see more censorship,” said the reporter, who declined to be named out of fear of jeopardizing his job.
Write to Te-Ping Chen at te-ping.chen@wsj.com

More: Thousands Rally for Press Freedoms in Hong Kong