HONG KONG (AP) — Dozens of Hong Kong journalists and some of their family members and associates have been harassed in recent months, a leading media professional group said Friday.
Drastic political changes have created an increasingly restricted environment for journalists in the semi-autonomous Chinese city once regarded as a bastion of press freedom in Asia.
Selina Cheng, chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, said in a news conference that this was the largest-scale harassment of reporters in the city that they are aware of.
Cheng said her group found that people describing themselves as patriots have sent anonymous complaints to at least 15 journalists' family members, the employers of their family members, their landlords and other related organizations since June. She said the attacks appeared to be “systematic and organized" and that she was among those targeted.
Many of the letters and emails threatened the recipients that if they continued to associate with the reporters in question or their family members, they could be endangering national security, the association said.
In addition, posts on Facebook targeting at least 36 journalists called their articles inflammatory and described legitimate reporting as problematic or illegal, the group said. Violent online threats were also made against some journalists and members of the association's executive committee, it said.
“This type of intimidation and harassment, which includes sharing false and defamatory content, and death threats, damages press freedom in Hong Kong and we should not tolerate it,” Cheng said.
She said they did not find any evidence that the harassment was directly linked to the city’s authorities. Several people who were targeted have reported their cases to the police or the privacy commissioner's office, she said.
Police said they would handle each report according to the law. They said Hong Kong society is underpinned by the rule of law and if residents suspect they are being intimidated or harassed, they should report the case to them.
The privacy commissioner's office said it received one complaint on Friday and is handling it according to established procedures.
Hong Kong's undersecretary for security, Michael Cheuk, told reporters that everyone in the city should be free from threats, fear and harassment. He called on affected people to report their cases to the authorities
This wave of harassment affected 13 local and international news outlets and two journalism education institutions, the association said.
One of them, the online English news site Hong Kong Free Press, said the landlord of its director Tom Grundy and property agencies received anonymous letters containing threats of “unimaginable consequences” and “collateral damage" unless he was evicted from the property and district. Grundy reported the incident to police Saturday, though the agencies and landlord ignored the threats.
Since the introduction of a Beijing-imposed national security law in 2020, two news outlets known for critical coverage of the government, Apple Daily and Stand News, were forced to shut down after the arrest of their senior management, including Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai.
The Hong Kong government insists that there are no restrictions on press freedom if journalists’ reports are based on facts.
In March, Hong Kong enacted another security law that deepened fears over civil liberties and press freedom. In August, two former editors of Stand News were convicted in a sedition case widely seen as a barometer for the future of the city's media freedoms. The ruling drew criticism from foreign governments.
Hong Kong was ranked 135 out of 180 territories in Reporters Without Borders’ latest World Press Freedom Index, down from 80 in 2021.
Selina Cheng, chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, shares intimidating Facebook posts against some of the city's journalists at a news conference in Hong Kong Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Kanis Leung)
Selina Cheng, chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, announces her group's finding over harassment against the city's journalists at a news conference in Hong Kong Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Kanis Leung)
Selina Cheng, chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association speaks to media in Hong Kong on July 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Kanis Leung)
CARACOLLO, Bolivia (AP) — Thousands of anti-government demonstrators marching in support of Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales clashed on Tuesday with counterprotesters blocking their way, a stark sign of an escalating power struggle in the volatile Andean nation.
In his most brazen show of force yet against current President Luis Arce, Morales sent word to his followers to mobilize what he called a “March to Save Bolivia,” a 190-kilometer (118 mile)-trek from the small village of Caracollo to the capital, La Paz, denouncing the government of his protege-turned-bitter rival.
Morales, a former coca grower, has retained significant support among poor and Indigenous Bolivians despite his resignation in 2019 amid mass protests over his disrupted re-election.
The march in solidarity with him began peacefully Tuesday morning, but turned violent hours later when hundreds of counterprotesters, armed with tear gas bombs, stones and firecrackers, spread across the highway waiting to confront the nearly 10,000 marchers. Some of them set a giant effigy of Morales on fire.
The Morales supporters, raising multi-colored Indigenous flags and chanting against Bolivia's economic crisis, surged toward them, using slingshots to pelt their adversaries with rocks as police in pickup trucks and on motorbikes looked on. Morales' followers soon forced the counterprotesters to retreat, their shouts — “Evo, Bolivia wants you back!” — drowning out the pro-Arce activists who chanted, “Evo, you traitor, your time has passed.”
A top official in Arce's government, Eduardo Del Castillo, told reporters that 13 people were injured in the scuffles, including three police officers. Associated Press reporters saw some pro-Morales marchers chasing the counterdemonstrators into the rolling Andean highlands on either side of the highway, beating them with sticks, pushing them to the ground and kicking them.
Arce and his ministers accused Morales of trying to orchestrate a coup. Using exaggerated, apocalyptic rhetoric, Del Castillo denounced Morales’ protest as a “death march” and said that the former president seeks “to destroy democracy in Bolivia and end the lives of Bolivians.” He denied that police used force against peaceful protesters, insisting that officers were attacked first.
Morales, for his part, claimed that the government sent plainclothes police officers to stir up trouble and vandalize protesters' vehicles, saying that Arce's government “has lost respect for human rights and laws in the country.”
The mood was largely defiant late Tuesday at a protest encampment in Panduro, in the mining state of Oruro, where the road weary marchers spent the night.
“The government is the one that sent police officers to try to stop us, but we were united and defeated them,” said Yamile Cruz, leader of Frutcas, a group of Indigenous farmers on the edge of the world’s largest salt flat. “This march will not retreat despite the government's intentions.”
Tuesday's mayhem deepened the rift at the top of Bolivia’s governing party, threatening to take the political feud between Morales and Arce into a dramatic new phase. Morales, Bolivia's first Indigenous President who oversaw the country's commodities boom from 2006 to 2019, seeks to run against Arce, his former economy minister, in next year's presidential election.
Protesters at the march Tuesday demanded that Morales be allowed on the 2025 electoral ballot despite a ruling by Bolivia’s constitutional court last year that Arce insists disqualifies him. Morales has dismissed the court resolution as politically motivated.
“They not only want to disqualify me, they want to restrict political rights,” Morales told reporters at the march. “Above all, we want the president and his government to heed our demands.”
Cracks in the governing Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, first opened in 2019, when Morales ran for an unconstitutional third term. He won a contested vote plagued by allegations of fraud, setting off mass protests that caused 36 deaths and prompted Morales to resign and flee the country. He returned and launched his political comeback after Arce, his choice candidate at the time, won the 2020 election.
The political rivalry has divided Congress and exacerbated an economic crisis stemming from the depletion of Bolivia’s foreign-exchange reserves. Protesters on Tuesday decried Arce's failure to halt the spiral and recalled Morales' tenure as one of economic growth and social uplift.
“We are suffering from hunger," said Felix Torres, a peasant protester from the highlands. “This is not how you govern.”
Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.
Demonstrators carrying wiphala flags march to the capital from Caracollo, Oruro, Bolivia, led by former President Evo Morales as part of a political dispute with current President Luis Arce and to protest his handling of the economy, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Demonstrators give an offering to Mother Earth before marching to the capital, led by former President Evo Morales, as part of a political dispute with current President Luis Arce and to protest his handling of the economy in Caracollo, Oruro, Bolivia, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Supporters of former President Evo Morales, top, who are marching to the capital to protest the government of current President Luis Arce, are confronted by Arce supporters, below, in Vila Vila, Bolivia, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
An effigy of former President Evo Morales starts to burn on a road between Caracollo and La Paz, to block Morales supporters who are marching to the capital against the government of President Luis Arce in an escalation of a political dispute between the two politicians, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
An effigy of former President Evo Morales is engulfed in flames on the road between Caracollo and La Paz, the route Morales' supporters are using to march to the capital against the government of President Luis Arce, in an escalation of a political dispute between the two politicians, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Supporters of former President Evo Morales, who are marching to the capital to protest the government of current President Luis Arce, walk toward Arce supporters who met them along the route in Vila Vila, Bolivia, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Supporters of former President Evo Morales kick a government supporter whose group confronted them in Vila Vila, Bolivia, during their march to the capital, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. Morales and his supporters are marching to the capital to protest the government of President Luis Arce in an escalation of a political dispute between the two politicians. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Supporters of former President Evo Morales, who are marching to the capital to protest the government of current President Luis Arce, advance towards Arce supporters who met them along their route in Vila Vila, Bolivia, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Supporters of former President Evo Morales, one holding a sling-shot, pursue a government supporter, top right, in Vila Vila, Bolivia, as they march to the capital, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. Morales and his supporters are marching to the capital to protest the government of President Luis Arce in an escalation of a political dispute between the two politicians. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Supporters of former President Evo Morales march to the capital to protest against the government of current President Luis Arce in an escalation of a political dispute between the two politicians, in Vila Vila, Bolivia Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Former President Evo Morales, center, and his supporters march to the capital to protest against the government of current President Luis Arce, in an escalation of a political dispute between the two politicians, in Vila Vila, Bolivia, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Supporters of former President Evo Morales, who are marching to the capital to protest the government of current President Luis Arce, run towards Arce supporters who met them along the route in Vila Vila, Bolivia, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
A government supporter runs through tear gas during clashes with supporters of former President Evo Morales who are marching to the capital to protest the government of current President Luis Arce in Vila Vila, Bolivia, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Supporters of former President Evo Morales, kick a government supporter in Vila Vila, Bolivia, as Morales supporters march to the capital, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. Morales and his supporters are marching to the capital to protest the government of President Luis Arce in an escalation of a political dispute between the two politicians. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
An effigy of former President Evo Morales burns on a road in Vila Vila, Bolivia, to block Morales supporters who are marching to the capital to protest the government of current President Luis Arce in an escalation of a political dispute between the two politicians, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
