Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Hong Kong leader rejects claims of press freedom ‘extinction’ | Al Jazeera

Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam said that she could not accept suggestions that press freedom in the city faced “extinction”, as independent media outlet Citizen News closed over safety fears, days after a police raid on another independent media outlet led to sedition charges against senior staff.

“This morning I read news about, because of the closure of online medium, press freedom in Hong Kong faces extinction … I just cannot accept that sort of allegations,” Lam said at her weekly press conference on Tuesday.

Citizen News announced its closure on Sunday, citing a “deteriorating” media environment in the former British colony and concerns about the safety of its journalists following the previous week’s raid on rival publication Stand News.

Beijing promised to respect Hong Kong’s freedoms, including a free press, for at least 50 years when it took control of the territory in 1997, but has been accused by Western countries and rights groups of eroding democracy and freedoms, particularly since the imposition of the national security law.

Authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing have repeatedly denied the accusations and say the security law helped restore stability after mass protests in support of democracy in 2019.

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