DATELINE: HONG KONG

You can have freedom of speech without democratic government...but those freedoms may become difficult to exercise if the government has no need for accountability. A paper presented at the East West Centre Conference for Journalists, Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club 15/11/97

The SAR retains freedom of the press. But that freedom is hedged by growing problems associated with news gathering here. Under the colonial regime, the last Governor had once been an elected politician, accustomed to the slights inflicted and powers bestowed by a libertarian press. The current Chief Executive, more used to the absolutism of a family corporation, has hired professional public relations consultants to soften his image. As a result, access to Mr. Tung is strictly limited, with preference granted to foreign correspondents servicing his powerful international business electorate. Local journalists, whose readers didn't and won't get to vote for Mr. Tung, are usually limited to asking one question each; a PR device which makes it easy to deflect or simply ignore informed inquiries. Questions attempting to penetrate the civil service surrounding the Executive Council are frequently fobbed off, met with silence or simply referred to the Government Information Service, a British invention which prides itself in its attempts at media control.

In a democratic society, reporters so treated would immediately seek to draw on the research and opinions of the political opposition. The Democrats, Hong Kong's most consistently popular political party, still operate freely here. Yet the next election process will ensure that the Democrats will be in a small minority in a Legislative Council dominated by politicians who owe their prominence, livelihood and continued political existence to supporting Beijing and its Hong Kong appointed executive. Reporters may derive some amusement from watching lifelong Marxists adroitly back flip as they doggedly praise their tycoon led administration as it refuses unions the right to collective bargaining, denies fair trading legislation, or stops working class Chinese children from re-uniting with their parents. But a lack of an effective legislative opposition will deny journalists the voices they need to "balance" reports composed through conventional political journalism methodology.

In practical terms, you can have freedom of speech without democratic government...but those freedoms may become difficult to exercise if the government has no need for accountability.

Reporters can of course seek comment from outside the formal political arena. Yet critics are "balanced" by disciplined community organisations which can be expected to faithfully support the party line. Such groups were created by the Chinese Communist Party and co-ordinated through the New China News agency, to oppose the colonial authorities. They still exist in post colonial Hong Kong. When an instruction comes down from head office, the "community" groups are able to call on Mr. Tung to implement the instruction and applaud him for his community awareness when he promptly does so. Even the Hong Kong Journalists Association, a genuine union, has a doppelganger in the form of the Hong Kong Federation of Journalists which draws its membership from party controlled papers and which says that its main role is to build better relations with Beijing. (During the handover, the Federation opened an office in the convention centre's press room, sharing space with China's National Television.)

Rejecting western modes of journalism and turning to patriotic methods which already may be discredited on the mainland, will not do any favours for journalists and the wider communities both here and in greater China. If as the International Federation of Journalists suggests, the first responsibility of a journalist is the public's right to know, then more sophisticated reporting methods must be sought to dig out the truth. It is here that journalism educators have a role and a responsibility, if not a moral obligation to influence future practices.

If Hong Kong is to be run in future as a business, then journalism teachers must address the changing political circumstances and help local journalists to use business affairs as a key to understanding and penetrating an increasingly opaque political process. Hong Kong journalists need to know modern investigative journalism techniques drawn form international experience. In particular:

¥ The legislation and mechanisms which govern company operations.

¥ How to access information held on Hong Kong companies in the United States and elsewhere.

¥ How to create and catalogue profiles of companies active in China and southeast east Asia. The Philippines Centre for Investigative Journalism might have some useful tips here.

¥ How to access the internet, as their colleagues in Guangzhou already do, to bypass the news agencies and tap into the galaxy of information available there.

Journalism education should not stop when graduates receive their degrees. Journalism educators should encourage formal arrangements with employers to take new techniques into the newsrooms. All courses should be refereed by a panel of industry advisors if only to ensure that journalism teachers have credibility in the industry itself. Finally, we must reject the anachronistic academic approach which values refereed articles placed in obscure academic journals more than positive contributions to the journalism industry. Academic journalism research should be directed towards finding answers for industrial, ethical and practical problems. Then perhaps we can help the media in Hong Kong and China will have a more effective future.

Alan Knight