Source: WSJ (3/29/24)
U.S.-Funded Radio Free Asia Closes Hong Kong Office in Wake of New Security Law
News outlet cites questions about safety as the city intensifies scrutiny of ‘external forces’
By Elaine Yu
Hong Kong’s new law imposes severe punishments for interference by foreign forces deemed to threaten national security. PHOTO: JAE C. HONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONG KONG—Radio Free Asia, a U.S. government-funded news operation, closed its office in Hong Kong, an early sign of the impact that a new national security law is having on some media operations in the Asian financial center.
The law, which went into effect Saturday, imposes severe punishments for interference by foreign forces deemed to threaten national security and criminalizes the possession or disclosure of state secrets.
RFA, as a publication supported by the U.S. federal gov-ernment, was potentially more exposed than commercial media outlets to provisions in the new law. In a news briefing last month, Hong Kong Secretary for Security Chris Tang criticized RFA for what he called incorrect reporting that some of the new law’s offenses target the media, and noted that the publication is funded by Washington.
RFA President Bay Fang said Friday that the news outlet closed its Hong Kong bureau in response to the law and no longer has full-time staff in the city, but it is keeping its official media registration there.
Actions by Hong Kong authorities “raise serious questions about our ability to operate in safety,” Fang said. The news outlet maintains an organizational firewall to safeguard its editorial independence from its funder, the U.S. Congress, Fang added.
The law imposes an expansive definition of state secrets that includes information related to economic and social issues. It regards as an external force any individual or entity that answers to a foreign government, political party or other overseas authority.
“To single out Hong Kong and suggest that journalists would only experience concerns when operating here but not in other countries would be grossly biased, if not outrageous,” a government spokesman said. He wouldn’t comment on the decisions of organizations.
During the public consultation period for the new law, some respondents raised concerns that it could impede freedom of speech and the flow of information, which could hurt the city’s business environment and reduce foreign investment. Some foreign executives have said the law’s broadly worded provisions could raise risk-and-compliance costs and make it harder to attract global talent.
The government has said the law isn’t aimed at businesses and wouldn’t affect normal operations. The new legislation supplements an earlier national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020 after mass antigovernment protests. Scores of political opponents, including pro-democracy activists and former lawmakers, have fled or been jailed since that law was enacted.
Popular pro-democracy news outlets Apple Daily and Stand News, among others, also have closed under pressure from the earlier law. Jimmy Lai, Apple Daily’s publisher, is on trial over national security charges, while two former top editors at Stand News are accused of conspiring to publish seditious materials.
Lai, alleged by prosecutors to be the “mastermind” of a campaign urging Western governments to sanction Chinese and Hong Kong officials over the city’s diminishing autonomy, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign forces and a separate charge of sedition.
The Stand News editors, who are awaiting a verdict, also pleaded not guilty.
Media groups have expressed concern that the new law’s provisions around state secrets and foreign interference could further inhibit reporting or increase risks for reporters. Two-thirds of the journalists surveyed by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Hong Kong last year said they had censored themselves, either in the content of their stories or by avoiding certain subjects.
Officials say the law is in line with international norms.