HongKong
In the 46th month since Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, the city held a raft of events to mark National Security Education Day. China’s top man on Hong Kong affairs urged it to prioritise economic development after the passage of a second security law. City officials continued to defend the homegrown security law – known locally as Article 23 – saying it did not damage the city’s rule of law and press freedom. They rebutted criticism from the US and European Union as “smears” and “hypocrisy with double standards.” The national security trial of pro-democracy media mogul J...
Hong Kong Free Press
The government has urged employers of outdoor workers to develop their own rules to prevent heatstroke after rolling out revisions to an official warning system that was slammed as ineffective and disruptive when introduced last year. The adjustments were made after stakeholders aired views to the Labour Department, Deputy Commissioner for Occupational Safety and Health Vincent Fung told RTHK on Friday. The pilot scheme was not originally due for review for two years. The Labour Department launched the revisions on Thursday to minimise situations in which a heat warning is cancelled and then r...
Hong Kong Free Press
Dear readers, On International Press Freedom Day, the HKFP team remains committed to reporting, on-the-ground, in one of the world’s most challenging, and rapidly-changing media environments. Nevertheless, our newsroom is facing a funding situation in 2024 whereby our expansion to nine team members coincided with a decline in regular Patron backers, resulting in two years of record losses. During this time, we’ve widened coverage of key court cases, deepened original reporting, launched a podcast, hired our first photographer, won several awards, and gained the Trust Project hallmark. HKFP now...
Hong Kong Free Press
Plans to introduce a problem-plagued waste charging scheme in Hong Kong will be reviewed by the end of May after a two-month pilot scheme and a report will be submitted to legislators, the government has announced. In response to a query from Ming Pao, the Environmental Protection Department said on Thursday the pilot scheme which started on April 1 would continue for two months, and authorities would submit a report to the Legislative Council on May 27. Authorities in January postponed full implementation of the waste charging scheme from April 1 to August 1, citing “public concerns”. Instead...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong’s tax revenue dropped by HK$18.2 billion in the last financial year, the second straight year of decline, amid slumps on the stock exchange and in the property market. The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) announced on Thursday that it had collected a provisional sum of HK$342 billion in tax revenue in 2023-24, five per cent less than the HK$360.2 billion in 2022-23. In the 2021-22 financial year, authorities collected HK$378.5 billion. Authorities sent out 2.44 million individual tax return forms this year, or 40,000 more than the previous year. Commissioner of Inland Revenue Tam Tai-...
Hong Kong Free Press
A prosecution witness in the national security trial of Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai has denied defence allegations that he had fabricated his court evidence in exchange for a shorter jail term after earlier lying to police. Paralegal Chan Tsz-wah on Friday insisted he was telling the truth after the defence challenged his credibility as a witness and accused him of fabricating his testimony in order to favourably influence his own sentencing, which is expected after the trial. As the trial entered the 69th day, defence lawyer Marc Corlett pointed to 14 statements or topics extracted from C...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong has again ranked low in a global press freedom index, as a watchdog cited an “unprecedented series of setbacks” including newsroom closures and journalist arrests under Beijing’s national security law. The city placed 135 out of 180 countries and territories in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF)’s annual press freedom ranking, released on Friday to mark World Press Freedom Day. Sandwiched between the Philippines and South Sudan in the ranking, Hong Kong continued to be among the few developed places to place poorly. Its press freedom ranking rose five places from last year’s 140. Bu...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong Free Press has been shortlisted for the International Press Institute’s (IPI) 2024 Free Media Pioneer award. The list showcases the “power and resilience of the free press,” according to the IPI – a 73-year-old global press freedom organisation with consultative status at the UN, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. “These outstanding organisations from around the globe are meeting the moment by defending press freedom, filling crucial gaps in quality, investigative reporting, or driving media innovation,” the IPI said in an announcement on Thursday. “Amid growing threats to independent...
Hong Kong Free Press
Seventy per cent of Hong Kong’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) say their income has dropped below pre-pandemic levels, despite Covid-19 restrictions being lifted a year ago, a survey has found. The Hong Kong Small and Medium Enterprises Association and Junior Chamber International Hong Kong conducted a survey in April, interviewing 568 SMEs from sectors ranging from food and beverage to retail. Results released on Thursday showed only 4.4 per cent of the respondents had reported growth since early 2023. “Factors such as the rising trend of northbound travel among Hongkongers, international...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong must improve communications to manage tourists’ expectations of fireworks displays, a tourism veteran has said after visitors from mainland China aired complaints about a scaled-down pyrotechnics display on Labour Day. It came as Hong Kong saw more than 181,000 arrivals from the mainland on the first day of the May 1 “golden week”. Timothy Chui, executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Association, told RTHK that he was “pleasantly surprised” to know that some mainland tourists had come to Hong Kong specifically for the scaled-down fireworks display. However, some Chinese netizens...
Hong Kong Free Press
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