All around the world independent journalism and free speech is under threat. In Hong Kong, the Chinese Government has put in place a new National Security Law that prohibits newspapers from criticizing the Chinese Government and curtails the rights of the Hong Kong people. This has led to the forced closing of the prominent Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily and the jailing of its head, Jimmy Lai. At the same time, in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Government has asked Twitter to remove all posts that are against the Indian Government or that they deem unfit or provocative. This is an assault on what has been a pillar of journalism for centuries, so should we be concerned?
But first, what is independent journalism and why is it such a controversial topic? Free and independent journalism in its most basic form is free of government influence or censorship. Independent journalism is a very controversial topic because people have different views on how much freedom in press constitutes ‘independent’ journalism. Also, in recent years it has resulted in polarizing discussion on how the press should be managed.
The new National Security Law in Hong Kong which led to the closing of the prominent newspaper, Apple Daily, is an example that comes to many people’s minds when discussing the curtailing and censorship of independent journalism and free speech. The fact that it only took a week to close down Apple Daily is a sobering reminder of the changing political climate. This was an attack on free speech as Apple Daily was not afraid to criticize the Chinese Government and so it was forced to shut down through pure brute power. This is worrying because other countries are thinking of adopting a similar sort of approach to that of China on free speech. In extreme cases this has even led to the murders of journalists in countries like Russia and Iraq.
Democracies are not safe either – in India, Narendra Modi’s government is also cracking down on free speech by taking down anti-government posts on Twitter and jailing journalists who criticise his government. He is also drafting a new law that mandates social media companies with more than 5 million users to remove posts that the government doesn’t like within 48 hours or risk being banned. Furthermore, the situation seems to be getting worse as India’s plans for the internet seem a lot like China’s: a closed ecosystem that is heavily monitored.
In order to preserve free speech and the freedom of the press, we must have stronger international institutions that severely punish a nation for restricting free speech. This is one of the ways that our precious freedom of expression can hope to survive. But there is a way that freedom of expression can live on even in the most censored environments as pointed out by Ai Weiwei, a critic of the Chinese government who is currently in exile. The internet is uncontrollable and therefore the only way governments can have complete control is by shutting off the internet, and they cannot live with the consequences of that. And if the internet is uncontrollable, freedom will triumph.
I would like to end on this quote from Apple Daily’s final edition.
“When an apple is buried beneath the soil, its seed will become a tree filled with bigger and more beautiful apples.”
