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Hong Kong journalists march for press freedom

Image: Hong Kong Journalists Association

Image: Hong Kong Journalists Association

A reported 6,000 people demonstrated in the streets of Hong Kong yesterday to oppose a perceived deterioration of media freedom in the territory.

The rally, organised by the Hong Kong Journalists Association, called on chief executive Leung Chun-ying to keep an election promise to defend press freedom as they protested outside his office.

Press freedom is increasingly under threat in Hong Kong, the HKJA claimed yesterday; liberal academics have been prevented from appearing in some newspapers, headlines that are critical of certain parties are cut, and pictures that are deemed too sensitive are removed, the group said.

“The trend is very clear, somebody wants to control the media, to punish disobedient journalists,” HKJA chairwoman Sham Yee-lan said on the group’s Facebook page.

Hong Kong Journalists Association chairwoman Sham Yee-lan

Hong Kong Journalists Association chairwoman Sham Yee-lan

She said that if press freedom is curbed, the next generation of Hong Kongers will face a society that “calls a stag a horse” and where facts are distorted.

Other rights such as freedom of speech would follow the loss of press freedom, she argued.

Joining the HKJA in the march, which was led with the slogan “Free Speech, Free Hong Kong”, were Journalism Educators for Press Freedom, Ming Pao Staff Concern Group, RTHK Programme Staff Union, Next Media Trade Union and the Independent Commentators Association.

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