MCLC: Ming Pao editor slashed

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Ming Pao editor slashed
***********************************************************

Source: Sinosphere blog, NYT (2/25/14):
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/25/hong-kong-editor-whose-ouste
r-stirred-protests-is-reported-stabbed/

Hong Kong Editor Whose Ouster Stirred Protests Is Slashed
By GERRY MULLANY

The former chief editor of a Hong Kong newspaper whose dismissal in
January stirred protests about press freedom in the Chinese territory was
slashed Wednesday morning, the police said.

Kevin Lau Chun-to, the former chief editor of Ming Pao, was slashed three
times by an attacker who fled with an accomplice on a motorbike, said
Simon Kwan King-pan, the chief inspector of the Hong Kong police. The
attack happened shortly after 10 a.m. as Mr. Lau was walking from his car
in the Sai Wan Ho neighborhood.  Mr. Lau was listed in critical condition
at a local hospital with a wound in his back and two in his legs, and
doctors said he faced a long recovery.

Mr. Lau’s ouster led to noisy protests by journalists and others who
feared that his departure reflected the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts
to subdue the independent media in the semi-autonomous territory.

Under Mr. Lau, Ming Pao investigated the death of a mainland dissident who
many suspect was murdered despite his death being ruled a suicide. It
recently took part in an investigation by the Washington-based
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published in January
that showed the relatives of several senior Chinese leaders, including
President Xi Jinping and former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, owned stakes in
companies registered with offshore tax havens including the British Virgin
Islands.

Francis Moriarty, the head of the press freedom committee of the Foreign
Correspondents Club of Hong Kong, called the attack “shocking” and noted
that it came after several less serious attacks on journalists in Hong
Kong and just three days after a protest over concerns about press freedom
in the territory. In one notable incident last year, assailants crashed a
car into the home of Jimmy Lai, a media mogul critical of Beijing who
founded Next Media, and they left a machete and ax in his driveway.

“This is a serious escalation,” Mr. Moriarty said of Wednesday’s attack.

“We urge the Hong Kong police to treat the incident with the utmost
urgency, and to find and prosecute the culprits,” the club said later in a
statement. “The growing number of attacks against members of the press in
Hong Kong needs to be taken seriously by the local administration. Hong
Kong’s reputation as a free and international city will suffer if such
crimes go unsolved and unpunished.”

Others called the attack disturbing no matter what the motive turns out to
be.

“It doesn’t matter what the motives are, it’s just not acceptable,’’ said
Yuen Chan, a lecturer in journalism at The Chinese University of Hong
Kong, adding that she didn’t have any information on why Mr. Lau was
attacked. “There have been incidents where media people have been
attacked, it’s not the first one  — it’s very, very disturbing."

The police said they had no suspects in the attack but they were reviewing
footage from security cameras at the scene. Several other recent attacks
involving journalists have gone unsolved.

In Sunday’s demonstration, at least 1,600 people turned out to support
press freedom in Hong Kong, with organizers citing such concerns as the
recent dismissal of a popular radio host and claims by local media outlets
that they are losing advertising from mainland Chinese businesses because
of their editorial positions.

The attack on Mr. Lau comes as Hong Kong-mainland Chinese tensions have
been building amid increasing fears over the mainland’s widening political
and cultural influence over the former British colony.

Starting in June, a series of large demonstrations are planned in Hong
Kong, including one to mark the 25th anniversary of the crackdown on the
Tiananmen protests in Beijing and others to press demands for universal
suffrage in electing the territory’s leaders. Such organized protests are
banned in mainland China.

Mr. Lau was visited in the hospital by Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kong’s chief
executive, who is considered pro-Beijing and who often came under scrutiny
by Ming Pao when Mr. Lau was its editor. At a news conference after the
visit, Mr. Leung recalled his association with the editor and condemned
“this savage act.”

Michael Forsythe and Alan Wong contributed reporting.