Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post Accused of Censorship

Media Release: Hong Kong
June 28, 2012

Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post Accused of Censorship

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is deeply concerned for the independence of Hong Kong’s longest-running English newspaper, the South China Morning Post, after becoming aware of reports of censorship and the discontinuation of its contracts with a number of experienced foreign journalists.

According to reports by the Wall Street Journal and Apple Daily, Wang Xiangwei, Editor-in-Chief of the South China Morning Post and Member of the Jilin Province Political Consultative Conference of China, is suspected of ordering the censorship of a story on the suspicious death of Tiananmen dissident Li Wangyang in Hunan hospital on June 6, 2012. The reports claim that Wang directed staff to cover the story as briefly as possible, rather than giving the story the extensive coverage undertaken by other media outlets. When the paper’s sub-editor, Alex Price, emailed Wang for an explanation, Wang is alleged to have replied, “I don’t have to explain to you anything. I made the decision and I stand by it. If you don’t like it, you know what to do.”

In other worrying news, the South China Morning Post has recently discontinued the contracts of a number of its most experienced foreign journalists.

Paul Mooney, an accomplished journalist who was recently celebrated with a number of Human Rights Press Awards in Hong Kong, was informed by Wang that his contract will not be renewed when it expires in September.

“Although Wang said the reason for not renewing my contract was budget cuts, I doubt that is the case”, Mooney said. “Wang never assigned any China news stories to me, preferring to ask journalists from Hong Kong to cover them”.

Mooney also recalled an occasion where Wang asked a Chinese journalist to conduct an interview with the Dalai Lama instead of him, despite the Dalai Lama already having accepted his request for an interview.

In addition to Mooney, two other experienced journalists from the paper’s China desk have left due to disagreements with Wang over news coverage.

“Confidence in the press relies upon public trust that the news is being reported free from political consideration”, IFJ Asia-Pacific said.

“As a publicly listed company, and one of Hong Kong’s oldest English language newspapers, the IFJ urges Wang Xiangwei to explain recent editorial and staffing decisions”.

The IFJ calls for Robet Kuok, the Malaysian majority shareholder of the South China Morning Post, to investigate the claims of political censorship at the paper and report his findings to the public and its share-holders.

We also call for Wang Xiangwei to resign his membership of the Jilin Province Political Consultative Conference of China, which raises questions as to his independence and impartiality.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association recently announced the results of a media survey, which revealed that 92.7% of respondents from Hong Kong’s media believe that press freedom in the territory is reducing. 79.2% of respondents also believed that self-censorship in Hong Kong is more serious a problem in 2012 than it was in 2005.

The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 131 countries

Find the IFJ on Twitter: @ifjasiapacific

Find the IFJ on Facebook: www.facebook.com/IFJAsiaPacific

ENDS

© Scoop Media