Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - On the eve of July 1, the anniversary of the handover to China but also of the entry into force in 2020 of the draconian National Security Law, another pro-democracy voice in Hong Kong is also shutting down. The historic Citizen's Radio station - long since avaiable only online - announced an end to broadcasting today.
The announcement was made in a Facebook post by its founder, former Legislative Council member Tsang Kin-shing. "It has been difficult for our program to invite guests in the face of the free-falling changes in the political situation, the red lines, and the dangerous situation after the Umbrella movement and the movement against the extradition law," he wrote. "Recently, the bank account has even been 'blocked' and we can only afford rent until August.
With its closure Citizen's Radio joins the Apple Daily newspaper-which suspended publication on June 24, 2021, again after the freezing of the bank accounts of its publisher and founder Jimmy Lai, who has been in jail since December 2020-and the Stand News website, halted on Dec. 29, 2021 after a search and other arrests also under the aforementioned National Security Law.
Founded in 2005 by Tsang, Citizen's Radio had never been granted a broadcast license. Faced with a challenge from the Office of the Communications Authority for using an illegal radio transmitter for Fm broadcasts, the station had continued to broadcast its programs online.
It hosted several prominent Democrats, including former Democratic Party chairmen Albert Ho and Emily Lau. One of its best-known voices was Leung Kwok-hung, a member of the League of Social Democrats who was also in jail awaiting trial for helping to organize the primary election for the Legislative Council.
In 2019-duringw hottest phase of the street protests-four masked men wielding bats and hammers had broken into the Citizen's Radio headquarters by smashing the glass door: no arrests were ever made in that affair.
Serious backward steps in freedom of information in Hong Kong were recorded by the ranking compiled annually by Repoter Sans Frontiers, which saw the former British colony plummet from 74th place in 2020 to today's 140th in a ranking of 180 countries.
