【明報專訊】As the fourth estate, the press performs the functions of monitoring the government, reporting the truths and exposing abuses of power and injustices. Press freedom is not about the privileges of a certain profession. It is about ensuring that the press and the journalists can monitor society without intervention and provide different perspectives on social affairs. Press freedom not only protects the press from interference and threats but also ensures the public's right to know.

Declining press freedom

According to the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders, press freedom in Hong Kong was ranked 73rd among 180 regions in 2019, falling by three places from 2018. Since 2002 Reporters Without Borders has been publishing a report on the World Press Freedom Index every year, evaluating the environments for the press and the degrees of censorship. In the 2019 report, the section on Hong Kong starts with the words ''erosion of press freedom'', saying press freedom in Hong Kong has been hurt by threats and influence from Beijing.

The report also mentions the fact that many owners of media groups in Hong Kong have business interests in mainland China and hold capacities such as member of the People's Congress and the Political Consultative Conference. Mainland China was ranked 177th, falling by one place from 2018. The group criticized the accelerated deterioration of press freedom in China.

Deterioration of police-press relations

The anti-amendment storm in Hong Kong, which has gone on for over half a year, has also put conflicts between police and journalists in the spotlight. Between June and mid-November last year, two journalists' organizations and three trade unions of journalists published around 127 statements. 67 of them were about the police's use of excessive force against journalists, their hindrance to media coverage of media and even the safety risk they posed to journalists.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) estimates that twenty to thirty percent of frontline reporters have suffered from injuries when doing their job. The group argues that press freedom and free speech have been undermined. The police respond by saying that the force always respect press freedom and understand the press's need to cover the police's clearance of crowds.

The right to be forgotten

In Germany a man was convicted of murder 37 years ago. In 2009 he found coverage of the case online. He filed a lawsuit, saying the coverage was an infringement of his privacy. In November 2019 the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the man had ''the right to be forgotten'' and ordered that his name be removed from search resulted to protect his privacy.

Translated by Terence Yip

[通通識 第623期]