CCP Creates More Media Rules

ZHANG:
On Friday the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council announced new rules for Hong Kong and Macau journalists reporting in mainland China. Heres a look at how the new rules will affect the ability of these reporters to cover China.

STORY:
The 5th rule for Hong Kong and Macao journalists reporting in the Mainland requires that they must hold a press card issued by the Communist Partys liaison offices before they can interview anyone in the Mainland. Hong Kong Journalists Association chairperson Tam Chi-keung, says the rule will further hinder honest reporting.

[Tam Chi-keung, Hong Kong Journalists Association]:
During the most recent years in China there occurred some large scale disasters. If you apply for a press card, then buy a flight ticket, then go to China, the news simply is no longer news by the time you get there.

Tam believes that the Communist Party will use this new rule to block members of the media it doesnt want entering the Mainland.

[Tam Chi-keung, Hong Kong Journalists Association]:
For example, there is a Hong Kong media that applied to report in the Mainland over a dozen times but it only got one stamp of approval. Last year this media got approved to cover the Olympic Games, but its reporter was stopped at the Beijing airport. They didnt allow him to enter.

Tam says freedom of the press in the Mainland has been shrinking more and more. And this rule comes out on a year where there will be a lot of news coming out of China the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, the 10th year of the persecution of Falun Gong, and the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising.

NTD, Hong Kong.

Category:

News & Politics

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