Credibility Ethical studies have been conducted by four journalism groups (
Hong Kong Journalists Association,
Hong Kong News Executives' Association,
Hong Kong Federation of Journalists,
Hong Kong Press Photographers' Association). They could not deny the fact that the mass media were suffering decreasing respect of Hong Kong citizens. Journalism was no longer seen as a respectable profession. The public had little trust in newspapers. People are actually attributing different motives to journalists. While readers who are pro-government sees journalists advocating their personal views to be producing fake news, readers who are anti-government sees journalists defending power to be producing fake news. The news industry attributed this phenomenon to the citizens' complaints about the decreasing ethics of journalists. Stories were exaggerated often violating
privacy. A study was conducted by
Hong Kong Journalists Association in early 2007 to find that 58.4% of journalists in Hong Kong considered that the degree of
freedom of speech had decreased since the
handover in 1997. Furthermore, nearly 60% of the interviewed journalists also thought that more self-censorship had been practised then than 1997. Thirty percent of media workers participating in the survey admitted to having self-censored, and some forty percent knew of colleagues who had practised self-censorship. The chairman of the HKJA pointed out that after this self-censorship of media is related to political and economic pressures traceable linked to the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP). She suggested that many media owners are representatives of the National People's Congress, have investments or eye investment opportunities in the mainland and are reluctant to jeopardise the political relationship.
Yellow journalism On 19 October 1998, a woman killed her two young children by pushing them out of a window from a high-rise building and then jumped to kill herself. The husband
Chan Kin Hong was widely reported to have little remorse on their death, saying he has "high libido" but his wife lost sexual drive after giving a birth to the latest baby and he had to visit prostitutes regularly. He also met another woman and planned to have his new life. He caused a significant public outcry. Some days later,
Apple Daily published a front-page photograph showing Chan with two prostitutes soon after his family's deaths. It was later revealed that the newspaper had paid Chan to pose for the photograph and the newspaper subsequently published a front-page apology. This incident and other concerns over increasingly aggressive news coverage and paparazzi in the intensive media battles for readers and viewers began widespread public discussions regarding press practices and accompanying ethical concerns that continue to this day over issues of privacy, responsible reporting and journalistic standards.
Invasion of privacy In August 2006,
Gillian Chung of the local pop duo
Twins filed a writ against
Easy Finder Magazine for publishing photos of her changing backstage at a concert in
Malaysia. This raised another media ethics and aggressive
paparazzi concern. And again, the magazine sold well, printing two runs of the magazine, selling out twice. The Hong Kong Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority received 2875 complaints regarding the revealing photos and the incident was referred to the Obscene Articles Tribunal for further action. On 1 November 2006, Easy Finder lost its appeal against an obscenity ruling on the published article and pictures. The appeal panel upheld the judgement, declaring the article "obscene", and saying it was a "calculated act of selling sexuality which is corrupting and revolting".
Violent assault on editor Kevin Lau, who had been chief editor of
Ming Pao until January 2014, was attacked in the morning of 26 February 2014 as he was about to take breakfast at a restaurant in Sai Wan Ho, Hong Kong. He was seriously injured in a targeted knife attack. Journalists and press of the world saw the attack as an attack on
press freedom. Thousands of people, led by leading journalists, attended a rally to denounce violence and intimidation of the media.
Siege of Apple Daily and attacks aimed at media owner During the Umbrella revolution in 2014, anti-occupation protesters besieged the headquarters of
Next Media, publisher of
Apple Daily. They accused the paper of biased reporting. Masked men among the protesters prevented the loading of copies of
Apple Daily as well as
The New York Times onto delivery vans.
Apple Daily sought a court injunction and a High Court judge issued a temporary order to prevent any blocking of the entrance. On 12 November, media tycoon
Jimmy Lai was the target of an offal attack at the occupied Admiralty site by three men, who were detained by volunteer marshalls for the protest site. The offices of Next Media and the home of Jimmy Lai, who controls the group, were fire-bombed in mid January 2015.
2015 Policy address controversy In the opening and concluding parts of his 2015 policy address, CY Leung attacked University of Hong Kong Students' Union publication,
Undergrad, for allegedly advocating independence and self-determination for Hong Kong. He also criticised another HKU publication, from 2013, entitled
Hong Kong Nationalism. He was criticised by pan-democrats and commentators for using the high-profile public address in an unprecedented attempt to undermine free speech and theoretical academic discussion by effectively declaring discussion of the topic "taboo". The number two and number three government officials, Carrie Lam and John Tsang respectively, distanced themselves from Leung, suggesting that Leung's controversial criticism of the magazines was personal and written by Leung himself; Leung insisted it was a team effort.
Sino United returns controversy In January 2015, following CY Leung's attack on a compilation book entitled
Hong Kong Nationalism,
Joint Publishing, Chongwa, and Commercial Press – all owned by
Sino United Publishing – de-listed the title. Hong Kong media reported that Sino had published and was distributing at least five anti-Occupy titles, and its stores were displaying these prominently, whereas popular books on the Umbrella movement by pro-democracy authors had been banished from their shelves. In March 2015, Up Publications, a small independent publishing house, complained that it was suddenly and unexpectedly faced with a large number of returns from the three main subsidiaries of Sino. Twenty titles were affected by the returns, to the serious detriment to the finances of Up Publications; many of the titles returned were not politically themed. The publisher was allegedly told by a bookshop source that its stance in the
2014 occupation and its publishing of books supportive of the
Umbrella Movement were responsible. Although no reason was given for the returns, political motives were suspected as two of the delisted books about the occupation were strong sellers at independent bookshops. ==See also==