"Many people are losing their jobs because of what they wrote:" The risky business of Hong Kong journalism

Once a regional beacon of press freedom, Hong Kong’s media landscape has become barely recognizable under the harsh limitations imposed by the national security law in 2020. And while journalists in the city have struggled to adjust to this new normal, there is a fresh chill on the horizon as the government looks to implement Article 23 of the territory’s Basic Law later this year with a more wide-ranging law on national security.

“Hong Kong] society is undergoing an extremely challenging and difficult period for people who uphold certain values of liberty and democracy,” says Professor Francis Lee at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s School of Journalism and Communications.

This applies not only to journalists but also to their sources. “If [sources] are still inside an authoritarian country, we have to see them as a vulnerable group," Lee claims.

“Let’s say you’re dealing with a MeToo case and the victim wants to be interviewed. Then they say they want to retract something. What do you say? Yes, I think — you have to say yes in that case. Basically, I think we are now applying the rule for dealing with vulnerable people to interviewees speaking on sensitive topics.”

[Edit typo.]