Hong Kong’s government on Wednesday “strongly condemned” criticism from 21 governments of its crackdown on independent media under the national security law.

“The [Hong Kong] government … strongly condemned a totally erroneous statement issued by the United Kingdom government … under the so-called “Media Freedom Coalition” concerning the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law,” it said in a statement.

The Media Freedom Coalition, which groups 21 governments including Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the U.K. and the United States, hit out at a recent national security raid on the offices of Stand News, the arrests of its staff, and the subsequent self-closure of Citizen News.

“Since the enactment of the National Security Law in June 2020, authorities have targeted and suppressed independent media in … Hong Kong,” the statement said. ” This has … caused the near-complete disappearance of local independent media outlets in Hong Kong.”

“These ongoing actions further undermine confidence in Hong Kong’s international reputation through the suppression of human rights, freedom of speech and free flow and exchange of opinions and information,” the group said, calling on the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Hong Kong authorities to respect freedom of press and freedom of speech, which were promised under the terms of the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.

The Hong Kong government said the claims were typical of “fact-twisting and opinionated attacks” on the law, which was imposed on the city by the CCP from July 1, 2020, and which it said had “restored stability in society.”

Media experts said the closure of Stand and Citizen News is already having an impact on the free flow of information in Hong Kong.

Francis Lee, dean of the school of journalism and communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), said many people feel as if their flow of news has been cut off, not least because they were used to subscribing to certain feeds and receiving push notifications to their mobile devices.

“When Stand News and Citizen News were still around, not that many people actually typed the … URL into their browser or clicked on it: very few people, actually,” Lee told RFA. “So now people are feeling as if there is no news being pushed to their device, and they’re not used to taking the initiative to go and seek out the news.”

Red lines

Another casualty of the crackdown is likely to be investigative journalism, Lee said.

“When people dig up [dirt], it’s usually, to a certain extent, to prevent the abuse of power,” he said. “When you have investigative reporting, it functions as a social mechanism … to let those in power … know that someone is watching them.”

“When the media loses its monitoring power, then society loses it too, and then there are fewer checks and balances on those in power, and more problematic behaviors,” Lee said. “Then you have more abuse of power and more corruption.”

A journalism student who gave only the name Peter said he hadn’t given up on his ambition to become a journalist in Hong Kong, however.

“I don’t think one should give up on that idea just because of things change for the worse,” Peter said. “The worse things get, the more there is to write about.”

“Nobody knows exactly where the red lines lie, but there are a lot of topics that need to be reported on.”

But former Stand News freelancer Alvin Chan, who has started his own personal journalism page, said part of the problem is the lack of platform, and the increasing difficulty of earning a living.

“Relying on my page isn’t going to be much use [for readers],” Chan said. “I only have two hands, and I don’t know how long I can carry on like this.”

“I keep wondering if they’re going to delete my page … All I’m doing is giving out placebos for a short period of time, so people feel as if somebody is still trying,” he said. “I can’t be the solution, though.”

Fewer sensitive stories

Lee agreed, adding that an entire media ecosystem is necessary for genuine press freedom, citing the role of the now-shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper in breaking such stories.

“The most critical media organizations will generally report the most sensitive stories,” Lee said. “So when Apple Daily broke a story, the Ming Pao, the South China Morning Post and the Hong Kong Economic Journal were forced to follow up.”

“They couldn’t just pretend it didn’t exist.”

He said he fully expects there to be less reporting of court cases linked to the 2019 protest movement now that Stand and Citizen News have shut down.

The Media Freedom Coalition statement came after hundreds of Hong Kong activists took to the streets of London and 10 other U.K. cities to protest against ongoing suppression of press freedom.

Former trade union leader Mung Siu Tat, who is now living in the U.K., said he had fled the city to escape the crackdown on dissent under the law, which bans speech deemed to “incite hatred” against the government.

“It was like a fire exit for me,” Mung said of the U.K.’s British National Overseas (BNO) visa scheme allowing up to three million eligible Hong Kong residents a pathway to emigration in Britain. “Hong Kong was like the burning building, and the fire is just getting worse and worse; it was a chance to get away from a disaster zone.”

He said Hongkongers’ identities would remain, regardless of their location.

“This identity is irreplaceable,” Mung told RFA in a recent interview. “It’s not determined by the color of your passport or where you live. It’s based on what you think and what you believe; on your culture and values.”

“I may no longer be in Hong Kong, but I still want them to know that my attitude hasn’t changed: I still want to fight alongside them,” he said.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.