Freedom of the press dead in Hong Kong: advocatesBy Chung Li-hua and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writerHong Kong’s publishing world and the fate of its democracy advocates were the focus of a Taipei forum on freedom of the press on Friday, where some of the speakers, who included exiled Chinese and Hong Kongers, said that freedom of the press was dead in the territory. Lam Wing-kei, former co-owner of Causeway Bay Books in Hong Kong, speaks at a forum in Taipei on Friday. Gui in February was sentenced to 10 years in jail for “illegally providing intelligence overseas.”Chinese poet and editor-in-exile Bei Ling (貝嶺) told the forum that freedom of the press no longer exists in Hong Kong. The Chinese government has blocked sea channels between Hong Kong and Taiwan to prevent people from secretly fleeing to seek asylum, he said. Simon Cheng (鄭文傑), a former employee of the British consulate in Hong Kong who was detained and allegedly tortured in Shenzhen last year, has said that he saw more than 10 Hong Kongers under detention at the same place he was held, and so he is an important eyewitness to how China treats some Hong Kongers, Lam said.

Source: Taipei Times September 06, 2020 15:56 UTC