Source: AFP
US news agency Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on Friday that it has closed its Hong Kong bureau due to staff safety concerns after the city enacted a new national security law.
China’s financial hub enacted a domestic security law — commonly known as Article 23 — that introduced stiff penalties for crimes such as treason, espionage and foreign interference.
RFA chairman and chief executive Bay Fang said in a statement that the company no longer has full-time staff in Hong Kong and has closed its physical office, citing “safety concerns for RFA staff and journalists”.
“The actions of the Hong Kong authorities, including referring to the RFA as a ‘foreign power,’ raise serious questions about our ability to operate safely under Article 23,” Fang said.
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A government spokesman declined to comment on “operational decisions by individual organizations” but said authorities “strongly deplore and condemn all fear-mongering and defamatory remarks” in relation to the national security law.
“To single out Hong Kong and suggest that journalists will only face concerns when operating here but not in other countries would be grossly biased, if not outrageous,” the spokesman told AFP on Friday.
Hong Kong’s security chief Chris Tang criticized the RFA last month for “tarnishing” Article 23 when he said some new offenses would target the media.
The RFA article had criticized the law.
When asked if the RFA had broken the law, Tang later said he wanted to alert the public to false information being peddled by “foreign powers”.
The Washington-based news agency is funded by the US Congress through an independent federal government agency that oversees the country’s political international media, according to its website.
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RFA opened its Hong Kong bureau in 1996 and operates as a private news organization with editorial independence, according to Fang’s statement on Friday.
Citing the “frontline situation,” Fang said “the RFA will shift to using a different journalistic model intended for closed media environments.”
RFA is the first foreign media outlet to publicly announce its closure in Hong Kong since the National Security Law took effect on March 23.
Hong Kong officials have defended the new security legislation — the second of its kind, after one imposed by Beijing in 2020 — as necessary to “plug” security gaps.
Authorities also cited “constitutional responsibility” for its creation under the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution since its handover from Britain to China in 1997.
The United States, the European Union, Japan and Britain are among the strongest critics of Article 23.
Source: AFP