Sri Lankan Defense Minister Threatens Journalist With Death

Cover your kids’ eyes. This is not a headline for the under 18 crowd.

Sri Lankan defence secretary: “You shit fucking journalist … People hate you. They will kill you”

While many public figures may think that way about journalists, few are stupid enough to say it during an interview.

According to the weekly, The Sunday Leader, the defense minister told Frederica Jansz during an interview: “You pig that eats shit! You shit shit dirty fucking journalist! […] People will kill you! People hate you! They will kill you!”

Jansz is the editor of The Sunday Leader.

FCC Human Rights Press Awards Presented

Each year for the past 16 years the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong, along with the Hong Kong Journalist Association and Amnesty International have celebrated the best of Asian journalism. (I was lucky enough to be on that committee during my time in Hong Kong.)

This is a major award that draws attention to not only good reporting but also the repression against free media that takes place in too many Asian countries.

The host is my buddy Frances Moriarty, a top-notch journalist with RTHK.

Hong Kong-Mainland China Divide Remains (and why it is important to understand)

Even though Hong Kong reverted to China in 1997, that does not mean that Hong Kong is “just another large Chinese city.”

I am still amazed after all these years that there is still a basic misunderstanding by people in the United States — including many in the media — about the differences between Hong Kong and mainland China.

I still clearly remember the conversation I had with an editor in 1999 when I moved to Hong Kong. Could I please write a piece about being a freelance journalist operating in a Communist-controlled territory, I was asked. I had to explain slowly and carefully that under the terms worked out between Britain and China, Hong Kong would enjoy civil liberties — such as freedom of speech and press — for 50 years after the handover.

By and large the Hong Kong people and media have used every ounce of that freedom. Is it any wonder then that more residents of the territory see their national identity as Hong Kongers and then ethnic Chinese?

Hong Kongers see the mainland Chinese as the poor country cousins. (Back in the early days following the handover it was easy enough to identify the mainlanders in Hong Kong because of their ill-fitting clothes and general uncomfortable demeanor in a modern city.)

And the mainlanders saw Hong Kongers as superstitious fools because of the dominance Feng Shui plays in the society. (Not to mention the very popular “villain hitting” exercises that take place under highway overpasses in Hong Kong.

In the past few years, Hong Kongers have complained of pregnant mainlanders giving birth in Hong Kong hospitals so they can claim Hong Kong citizenship for their children. (Sound familiar? Think “Anchor Babies” in the States. And some wackos even thinks this is a plot to get future terrorists US passports.)

ADDENDUM: With the Chinese New Year of the Water Dragon now upon us, the latest concern are all the mainland mothers-to-be coming to Hong Kong to give birth to “lucky” babies.  Hong Kong braces for influx of “Dragon Babies”

The tension between Mainlanders and Hong Kongers continues.

The latest comes in a confrontation in the Hong Kong Metro. (Mainland Visitors Eating On A Hong Kong Train Caused A Huge Fight)

Suffice it to say, the Mainlanders were wrong to eat on the train and both sides were wrong to start shouting.

What is clear — even for Mandarin/Cantonese challenged listeners — is the contempt each side held for the other.

Now add to that a descendant of Confucius jumps in and calls Hong Kong as a land of “dogs” and “thieves.” (Beijing professor and descendant of Confucius provokes anger by insulting Hong Kongers)

Every stereotype is played out in this shouting match between Hong Kong and the Mainland.

So why is this important to the West?

To begin with, the Hong Kong economy.

Hong Kong sits to Asia as the United States sits to the world. It is a massive economy with a currency recognized around the world. (Unlike the Chinese yuan.)

The  gross domestic product in Hong Kong is US$325.8 billion. And this is with an economy that shifted from production to services decades ago.

The per capita income is US$45,736 compared to China’s US$8,288.81. (By comparison, the United States is US$48,665.80)

Much of the investment in China comes from Hong Kong companies or Hong Kong middlemen.

Hong Kong is rightfully proud of its rule of law, anti-corruption regime and its civil liberties. But all these items put it in direct conflict with what Mainlanders are used to.

And then add into the mix the “get rich at all costs” attitude of Hong Kong businesses.

Many shops in Hong Kong now cater to the increasing mainland Chinese tourist trade. Some store have even gone as far as making access easy for mainlanders and difficult for Hong Kongers. Or providing “special protection” to mainlanders. Dolce & Gabbana in Hong Kong got a caught in the middle when it handled the conflict poorly. (Several people speculated that D&C did not want its mainland Chinese patrons accidentally photographed because its clients were most likely high-ranking party and government officials. It would, after all be embarrassing to those mainlanders to be seen buying expensive clothes that cost more than most Chinese earn in year.)

This division plays into the economic situation in the region. It also plays into the political and social expectations of Hong Kongers. And it plays into basic prejudices.

Hong Kong is the only place under Beijing rule that can — and does — have an annual commemorative demonstration to remember the students killed in Tiananmen Square in 1989. It is the only place under Beijing rule that allows media to openly criticize the local and national governments.

Hong Kong provides a chance to educate mainland Chinese journalists how to be better journalists and how to push back against the ruling elite.

And for the global economy — which affects the United States — Hong Kong provides an example for businesses to better understand how to get ahead under the rule of law instead of through constant bribery. (Granted a lot of the corruption and bribery in China does come from Hong Kong companies but in the territory of Hong Kong, the anti-corruption laws are firmly applied.)

Lastly, the divide between the Hong Kongers and Mainland Chinese offers a glimpse of the divides that we see between United States and Latin America or Western and Eastern Europe.

Looking for links is not hard. One just has to be willing to  look.

Lies do catch up — even with floating government officials

The latest meme out of China is the “Levitating Government officials.”

Seems after a new road was built in Huili, the actual pictures of the government officials inspecting the road did not look pretty enough, so a worker for the local government used PhotoShop (likely a bootleg version) to “fix” the problem.

The problem got worse as the government officials appeared to be floating on the road and people noticed.

I looked at the photo and I almost coughed out half a liter of blood! Even a rank amateur like myself can tell that this was a PhotoShop job…

And the obvious nature of the poor job led other Chinese to place the government officials into other situations.

Bottom line: There is nothing like truth and accuracy because eventually the lies will be found out and will bite you in the ass.

Many thanks to Boing Boing for pointing this out.

Highest bar and journalism ethics

A friend in Hong Kong just did a review of the highest bar in the world, the OZONE on the 118th floor of the Ritz in Hong Kong. (At Hong Kong Hotel, the World’s Highest Bar)

A couple of things…

1. She noted that the three highest bars are in Shanghai and Hong Kong, two cities getting more infamous for the high levels of air pollution. (For a reaction to the pollution issue see: Tweets about Bad Air.)
2. At the end of her extended comments about the bar Joyce noted: “I’ve heard some people here grumbling about the service. We were actually well served and treated. And, no — it wasn’t a press thingie. We went as normal diners and paid our own bill.”

Let’s talk about last item.

For American journalists there never would be any need to mention that a reviewer bad his/her own way. (Or at least had the news organization pay.) That is not the case around the world. And that is something American journalists have to understand.

During a panel discussion on ethics in journalism I chaired many years ago in Hong Kong for the Foreign Correspondents Club the differences between the American and European and Hong Kong journalists about what was ethical behavior was interesting. One Hong Kong journalist noted that if reporters did not get free tickets to movies or free meals at restaurants, there would be very few reviews in the Hong Kong media. American panelists expressed dismay at this position but recognized that — let’s face it there is no other way to say it — Hong Kong publishers are cheap.

The American panelists replied that if the only options were to accept a free ticket/meal or do no review, there would not be a review. For the Americans there was a clear bright line about what was allowed and what wasn’t. For the Hong Kongers the line was more muddled.

So to a U.S. eye, there are serious ethical problems with Hong Kong journalism. Yet, at the same time, Hong Kong journalists are the ONLY journalists in land controlled by Beijing that are not reined in by the government. The journalists in the Special Administrative Region are fiercely independent and (for the most part) willing to take on anyone and any government.

Joyce’s comment about who paid for the dinner is a good place to start for globally minded journalists to look for ways to discuss differences and similarities in how we do our jobs around the world.

(BTW, every journalist I knew in Hong Kong while I was there adhered strictly to the U.S. rule of accept no freebies. And at sometimes it was a shock to our European and Asian colleagues.)