The "Zunzi Comic", which has a 40 -year -old political comic column in the Hong Kong Ming Pao, suddenly announced that it will be suspended from Sunday (May 14).The column has repeatedly accused Hong Kong officials of "discrediting the government" by Hong Kong officials over the past six months. This suspension has once again caused the industry to worry about Hong Kong's freedom of pressing.
The fuse of the incident was a "Zunzi Comic" published by Ming Pao last Tuesday (May 9), which satirized the newly announced district council election reform plan released by the Hong Kong government.The content of the comic mentioned that as long as the chief thinks it is appropriate, whether it is "the number of Chinese and Britain is not as good as Chinese and English, the short (thin body), and no problem with color blindness," can be appointed as a member of the Fireproof Crime Determination Committee and has the right to participate in the screening areaMembers and other.
On the day of the comics, Mai Meijuan, the director of the Civil Affairs and Youth Affairs Bureau, issued a document to criticize the comic content "ignore the facts" and "confusing audiovisual", and with discrimination and insulting ingredients, it violated media morality.
Two days after Ming Pao (May 11) published an announcement, announcing that the "Zunzi Comic" will be suspended from Sunday. At the same time, there is another comic column "Century Edition Council Comic".Both columns were created by Huang Jijun, a well -known Hong Kong political cartoonist of Hong Kong named "Zunzi".
On the same day when the news was announced by the announcement of the "Zunzi Comic", some readers retrieved the "Zunzi" works in its directory on the official website of the Hong Kong Public Library, but found that "no retrieval results".During the Hong Kong media inquiry, the content of the Hong Kong government said that the allegedly violated books that may violate national security or Hong Kong law will be immediately removed from the shelves.
During the anti -repair campaign in 2019, many Hong Kong media were involved in the political waves, and their relationship with the police was particularly nervous. It was also questioned by reporters on anti -repair protests.Since the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law in mid -2020, the Hong Kong Government has continuously rectified the media industry. The media such as Apple Daily's position news have ended operations.
A reporter -free reporter headquarters in Paris, France, released the World Press Freedom Index of the New Year on May 3rd. Hong Kong ranked 140 among 180 countries and regions reported by Hong Kong, far lower than 73 in 2019.
The Hong Kong Newspaper reported on May 9 that the Hong Kong Journalists Association, which has also been criticized by the Hong Kong Government many times, is about to be replaced.At the end of April, the Key Association has sent a letter to all members, inviting people of people with aspirations to run for the executive committee.
The latest survey released by the Institute of Public Opinion on Thursday (May 11th) shows that the people interviewed in Hong Kong believe that the net value of the media's "self -examination" is 35 percentage points, which is more than the last survey conducted in September last year.13 percentage points, setting a record high since September 1997.In addition, 45%of the citizens interviewed expressed their dissatisfaction with Hong Kong's degree of press freedom.
Yang Jianxing, former chairman of the Hong Kong Journalist Association, believes that Hong Kong's freedom of news has fallen to a "low level".He said that in the ranking of freedom of press, Hong Kong is no longer competing with upstream international cities, but to strive for "don't work."
As for the self -censorship of the Hong Kong media, Yang Jianxing pointed out that the situation is not a question of reporting, using words, and finding who is looking for, but some authors, columns, comics, and news less, and even "completely gone", even "Zunzi is the latest example."The citizens can see very clearly, more and more columns, some authors, and certain types of news are gone ... Can citizens judge by themselves, is it the government's tolerance for different opinions?" However, when the Hong Kong Chief Executive Li Jiachao responded to the suspension of "Zunzi Comics" on Friday (May 12), Hong Kong said that Hong Kong has freedom and freedom of speech, but responsible media institutions must also consider the information provided to the citizensWhether it meets public expectations.
He said: "Hong Kong's freedom of pressing and freedom of speech is sufficiently guaranteed by the Basic Law, but I oppose any information that is false, biased, slander or misleading (others).The media agency is responsible in this regard. "
Chen Weiqiang, a lecturer of Hong Kong University of Technology Hong Kong Specialty College, said in an interview with Lianhe Zaobao that the "Zunzi Comic" has great influence in Hong Kong society and has received great attention from the Hong Kong government.As soon as the official found that the comic content was slightly misleaded or biased, it was often inclined to send a statement to refute.
However, Chen Weiqiang pointed out that comics are created, and the content will inevitably be exaggerated, which is different from pursuing objective current affairs review articles.This time, the "Zunzi Comic" was stopped. I wonder if there was official pressure behind it, but the perception of the outside world was not very good.
