Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - The overseas exodus of the city's journalists to escape the growing climate of repression continues unabated, according to a study by the Association of Overseas Hong Kong Media Professionals (Aohkm), led by veteran expat reporters such as Joseph Lian and Steve Vines.
Since the imposition in the summer of 2020 of the security law sought by Beijing, newspapers and journalists have come under intense pressure from authorities, the press, and pro-establishment social users. Several newspapers and websites have had to close, such as Catholic tycoon Jimmy Lai's Apple Daily (under arrest and awaiting trial) and Stand News; many journalists are now in jail.
The Hong Kong Association of Journalists has repeatedly denounced that the serial detention of reporters and columnists has spelled the end of freedom of information in the former British colony--a charge the local executive rejects. In the past year, the city has dropped from 80th to 148th place in Reporters Without Borders' press freedom index.
According to Aohkm, Hong Kong journalists now residing abroad number a few hundred-a number that has been steadily growing. In the past two and a half years, most have fled to Britain, Canada, Australia, Taiwan and the United States. That of flight from the city is a much broader phenomenon and affects several categories: between January 2021 and February this year, the United Kingdom alone took in 144,500 people from its former colony.
A survey conducted by the humanitarian organization of 90 of them found that they are mostly reporters, followed later by editors. More than a third have more than 21 years of experience, and 80 percent do not plan to return to Hong Kong anytime soon because of the psychological trauma they suffered.
Ninety percent do not regret their choice to leave the city, despite the problems they encountered in their new life. More than half of the respondents said they are not working in the media sector at the moment: some are bartenders, some are mechanics, some have become youtubers; one is a florist.
Two-thirds of this group, however, said they would like to return to their old profession. However, the majority of those who would like to continue with a journalism career abroad stressed the problems they had with a new language, which was considered a strong barrier to employment. Some found jobs at the BBC, Voice of America, and Radio Free Asia. A third, often on a voluntary basis, contribute to new platforms founded by Hong Kong citizens targeting the city's diaspora.
