MCLC: Ming Pao editor ousted

[Denton, Kirk]

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

Source: NYT (1/30/14):
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/world/asia/hong-kong-paper-ousts-top-edit
or-stirring-concern.html

Hong Kong Paper Ousts Top Editor, Stirring Concern
By CHRIS BUCKLEY and GERRY MULLANY

HONG KONG — This city’s Ming Pao newspaper has long stood for sober
independence in a media market that is both brashly commercial and
buffeted by political winds from China, its reporters pursuing and often
breaking stories that irk the territory’s overseers in Beijing.

So when the paper’s chief editor, Kevin Lau Chun-to, told employees this
month that he was being moved aside by its owners, the suspicion spread
that he had been sacrificed to appease the Chinese government and its
local loyalists. Shock rippled through the newsroom. Noisy protests broke
out among residents who fear that Mr. Lau’s abrupt departure represents an
alarming advance in the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to subdue the
territory’s independent media.

His ouster comes as Hong Kong enters a volatile time, facing contention
over how far to go in proposals to elect the territory’s leaders through
universal suffrage, a step that worries the Chinese government, as well as
broader tensions about the growing political and social influence of
mainland China. For many, the shake-up at Ming Pao crystallized anxieties
about those strains and about the vulnerability of the news media to
political influence. On a recent weekend, hundreds of protesters gathered
outside the newspaper’s offices, many dressed in black and clutching black
balloons, calling for it to maintain its independence.

“If Ming Pao goes down, it does mean that the lights go out” on
independent, aggressive reporting, said Margaret Ng, a lawyer who has
worked as an editor at the newspaper and also served on the Hong Kong
Legislative Council.

“This is a particularly crucial moment,” Ms. Ng said. “There are very few
papers now that will do full investigative journalism; Ming Pao is the
only one left.”

Newsstands in Hong Kong sell a profusion of publications that cover news
across the political spectrum, reflecting the territory’s protection of
free speech, along with plenty of titles devoted to lighter topics, like
celebrity gossip and horse race betting tips. The Apple Daily, a popular
tabloid, specializes in a mix of combative journalism and salacious
scandals. Newspapers like Wen Hui Po and Ta Kung Pao loyally reflect the
Chinese government’s views, and have a small readership.

Ming Pao is one of a handful of local broadsheets that seek to offer
thorough, independent coverage of Hong Kong and mainland China. Under Mr.
Lau, the paper pursued investigations of the Hong Kong chief executive,
Leung Chun-ying, and of the death of a mainland dissident who many suspect
was murdered despite his death being ruled a suicide. Recently, it
participated in an investigation by theInternational Consortium of
Investigative Journalists <http://www.icij.org/> into offshore accounts
owned by wealthy and politically well-connected Chinese citizens.

“It has been relatively able to achieve a balanced editorial approach, and
that’s why people treasure its independence,” said Ching Cheong, a
prominent Hong Kong journalist who writes opinion columns for Ming Pao. He
was imprisoned in China for nearly three years on spying charges that he
describes as entrapment.

“Now, with the sudden change of a chief editor, everyone is worried that
relatively independent editorial policy will be affected,” Mr. Ching said.
He and other opinion writers for the paper have often criticized the Hong
Kong government and mainland authorities.

Although Ming Pao occupies a niche of Hong Kong’s media market, its
history as a sophisticated, outward-looking newspaper has given it
outsized influence. It was started in 1959, and its co-founder was Louis
Cha, better known among Chinese readers as Jin Yong, the author of revered
martial arts novels. A public opinion survey
<http://www.com.cuhk.edu.hk/ccpos/images/news/PressRelease_140102_credibili
ty.pdf>released this month by the Chinese University of Hong Kong found
Ming Pao rated the territory’s third most credible newspaper, closely
behind the top-ranked English-language South China Morning Post and The
Hong Kong Economic Times.

In 1995, Tan Sri Datuk Sir Tiong Hiew King, a Malaysian of Chinese
heritage, bought a controlling stake in Ming Pao and its stable of
publications. His main business is the Rimbunan Hijau Group, a timber
multinational that does significant business in China. After the paper
changed hands, it largely maintained its independence, journalists there
said. But reporters and editors said they feared that the newsroom’s
autonomy had weakened this year, with the news that the chief editor, Mr.
Lau, would be removed.

“There was shock, surprise,” said Phyllis Tsang, deputy assignment editor
at Ming Pao, who was among those raising concerns about Mr. Lau’s
departure. “Some people got emotional and had to hold back tears. We
haven’t had anything like this happen since the handover,” she said,
referring to 1997, when Hong Kong passed from British to Chinese
sovereignty.

She and other Hong Kong journalists said they worried that Beijing’s
political influence was eroding the formal barriers established with that
handover.

Under the deal negotiated by China and Britain, known as “one country, two
systems,” Hong Kong is supposed to have considerable autonomy through laws
and courts that insulate residents, businesses and the news media from
mainland control. But Hong Kong media outlets want to woo advertisers that
are also focused on breaking into mainland China, which can depend on
pleasing, or at least not offending, its leaders. Hong Kong journalists
cited reports that companies had pulled advertising from publications that
anger the Communist Party.

“All the owners of news media want to do business with China; you have to
play to the tune of the Chinese government,” said Lee Cheuk-yan, a Hong
Kong legislator and labor leader.

Mr. Lau would not comment on his removal. A statement issued by Ming Pao
said the newspaper would continue its commitment to unbiased reporting and
editorial independence.

“Ming Pao has undergone a number of changes in chief editor, and its
editorial direction has always remained consistent, and will not change
because of personnel changes,” said the statement, sent by a spokeswoman
for the paper. Mr. Lau’s permanent successor has not been announced yet. A
former chief editor is in charge for now.

The upheaval at Ming Pao comes amid rising concerns about media
independence in Hong Kong. Last fall, the Hong Kong government denied a
television license to a well-funded start-up even after a government
committee said the network would promote healthy competition. The decision
prompted protests by thousands of people who asserted that the decision
reflected the Hong Kong government’s desire to stymie independent voices
that might anger Chinese authorities.

The Chinese government has not commented on the controversy over Mr. Lau’s
departure. Last week The Global Times, a popular mainland Chinese tabloid
owned by the Communist Party’s People’s Daily, dismissed claims of party
meddling as “laughable” and “infantile.” It accused enemies of China in
Hong Kong of using the incident to “fan Hong Kong residents’ hostility
towards the mainland.”

The coming year is likely to be a politically tense one in Hong Kong, with
pro-democracy forces calling for widespread protests to push Beijing to
allow unfettered direct elections for the selection of the territory’s
chief executive in 2017. In June, mass demonstrations are likely for the
25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, with previous such
rallies drawing tens of thousands of people to the streets.

“If Ming Pao shifts, there’s even less room for truly independent
journalism in Hong Kong,” said Yuen Chan, a lecturer in journalism at the
Chinese University of Hong Kong. “People have been saying that this shows
we can’t rely on traditional media anymore.”