부산대학교 도서관

Until fairly recently, Hong Kong relatively enjoyed press freedom even after the 1997 reversion to China under the framework of “One Country, Two Systems.” However, in June 2020, China enforced the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (hereinafter referred to as “the security law”), which includes the imposing of punishment, life imprisonment as the maximum, for the offences of secession, subversion, terrorist activities, and collusion with a foreign country or with external elements. The security law also stipulates the government policy to strengthen its control over the media, the internet and the like. In august, the founder and some other members of the Apple Daily newspaper–the only major media in Hong Kong critical of the Chinese government–were temporarily taken into custody on suspicion of violating the security law, and the police raided its headquarters. The author conducted online interviews with 16 individuals involved in the Hong Kong media, based on which this paper examines the influence of the security law on the media. Many of the interviewees pointed out the ambiguity of the security law, showing their grave concern that what actions constitute “inciting,” “abetting” or “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements” would be determined based on the arbitrary interpretation by the central government. When asked about the future of the Hong Kong media, almost all of them said that they could see no hope in the short term unless there would be changes in the mainland China. Many mentioned internet media as their only hope, but the interviews also revealed various challenges facing the media including the shortage of financial and human resources, because of which they cannot conduct satisfactory reporting. On top of this, some touched on the latest trend of continuous emerging of pro–China media on the internet aiming to attract young people, by, for example, letting internet celebrities known as Wang Hong make comments on YouTube. Amid China's exercising influence, we cannot take our eyes off Hong Kong's press freedom that is standing on a brink.