Friday, 03 July 2020

Why we must all stand with Hong Kong

Photo: Voice of America, Cantonese Service, Iris Tong

The fear was palpable on social media. Days before Hong Kong’s National Security Law was passed, people started to delete their Twitter accounts.

“It is already corroding our freedom and rights,” wrote Alex Lam, a reporter for Apple Daily, who remained on the platform.

The fear was felt by journalists. “I’m keeping a low profile” people told Index as they refused to be interviewed “on the record”. Soon the word “anonymous” appeared with great frequency on articles from the city.

Our deputy editor Jemimah Steinfeld writes on just what is at stake in Hong Kong and why we must all speak up against it.

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The view from Hong Kong in 1997

Since 1997, when Hong Kong was handed back to China having previously been a British colony, Hongkongers have enjoyed freedom of expression, including a flourishing free press, under the “one country, two systems” constitutional principle. As this principle begins to crumble, we look back at pieces published in Index magazine in 1997 which explored the implications of the handover and the future relationship between mainland China and Hong Kong.

(Illustration from cartoonist tOad published in response to the new law. twitter.com/t0adscroak, www.unsitesurinternet.fr)

Ruth Smeeth: "From Ethiopia to Hong Kong, we will not abandon you"

"Following the news this week has been harrowing. Beyond the ongoing awful deaths from Covid-19 and the daily redundancy notices we also now have some governments turning against their citizens. Free speech around the world, or rather the restrictions on it, have dominated nearly every news cycle and behind each report there have been inspiring personal stories of immense bravery in standing up against repression." Read the new weekly blog post from our chief executive.

Summer 2020 issue now available

Just how much of our privacy might we give away - accidentally, on purpose or through force - in the battle against Covid-19? This is the question we pose in the Index on Censorship summer 2020 magazine, available now. People around the world are being encouraged to download contact tracing apps. That might be ok when the app has safeguarded privacy, but more often than not what is happening to data is not being spelt out, something Indian journalists are worried about in terms of their safety and that of their contacts, as Indian journalist Somak Ghoshal writes. And in the case of Colombia, Stephen Woodman highlights that the apps are easy for hackers to access. But when we're in the home things don't seem much better, as Adam Aiken argues in his article looking at the privacy issues that blight Zoom.

Index on Censorship defends people's freedom to express themselves without fear of harm or persecution. We publish censored writers and artists, monitor and campaign against censorship, and encourage debate.

We rely on donations from readers and supporters. By donating to Index you help us to protect freedom of expression and to support those who are denied that right.