A recent Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) survey has revealed (/confirmed) that both journalists and members of the public believe that press freedom declined in 2015, for the second year in a row.
The Hong Kong Press Freedom Index – which was established in 2013 and is compiled through interviewing members of the public and distributing questionnaires to journalists – dropped 1.4 points to 47.4 for the general public and 0.7 points to 38.2 for journalists.
The survey found that 54 percent of public respondents felt that press freedom has worsened and 34 percent thought that there has been no change. A staggering 85 percent of journalist participants believed that the situation has worsened and only one percent sees an improvement.
HKJA says that “the all-time low rating of press freedom index shows the press freedom, which is a pillar of Hong Kong’s success, has been eroded at its roots, even worse, the fundamentals of the rights the general public are enjoying are also at stake”.
It also remarked that the significant drop in the public’s score implies that the damage caused to press freedom is “so obvious that even the general public is aware of the problem”. Glad to see that HKJA has such faith in the public…
Both members of the public and journalists agree that self-censorship has become more common, with the public perceiving it to be more common than journalists do.
The report also examined whether respondents think existing laws are adequate enough to allow journalists to obtain the information that they need for reporting, with both the public and journalists giving slightly lower scores than the previous year.
But on a more positive note, neither category believed that the effectiveness of the watchdog role played by the Hong Kong media has worsened. The average rating for both public and journalist respondents was 6.3, with 10 being very effective, as was the case in 2014.
And better still, violence against journalists is believed to have become less common than in 2014.
HKJA Chairperson Sham Yee-lan urged the government to take action to safeguard press freedom. She also called for the government to introduce a Freedom to Information Act, given the feedback on existing laws.
For the 2015 index, a total of 1,021 Cantonese-speaking residents aged 18 and above were interviewed by HKU in January. HKJA also distributed questionnaires to journalists at the beginning of this year, receiving 446 completed responses.
