"It’s never been more important to protect our right to a free press", Benedict Rogers

As we mark World Press Freedom Day today, let us remember journalists around the world who are in jail, or face intimidation and threats for their work reporting the truth – and let us draw attention to repressive laws designed to restrict media freedom.

First and foremost, before talking about press freedom globally, let us remember and pay tribute to the more than 175 journalists who have lost their lives in Gaza, Israel and Lebanon over the past 18 months, the highest death toll of journalists in recent years. Wherever you stand in the Israel-Gaza conflict, their killings must end. According to last year’s World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, recent years have seen an alarming decline in respect for media freedom and increasing pressure on media workers from governments or other political actors.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that in 2024, at least 124 journalists were killed around the world, making last year the deadliest in more than three decades. At least 361 journalists were in jail last year – a near record high.

Aside from Israel, China and Myanmar are reportedly among the worst offenders, along with Belarus and Russia. Among those still in jail today are the 77-year-old entrepreneur and British citizen Jimmy Lai, founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily in Hong Kong, the citizen journalist Zhang Zhan in jail in China for reporting on Covid-19, and Myanmar reporter Sai Zaw Thaike, sentenced to 20 years in prison for his coverage of Cyclone Mocha in 2023. In Hong Kong’s jails alongside Mr Lai are Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, the editors of Stand News, a publication which, like Apple Daily, was forced to shut down as a result of the draconian national security law imposed on the city by Beijing, violating the international treaty commitments it made that it would respect human rights in Hong Kong following the city’s handover to Chinese rule in 1997.

In mainland China, the world’s worst jailer of journalists, at least 110 are in prison today. These include former state media reporter Dong Yuyu, sentenced last year to seven years in jail on espionage charges, and independent journalist Li Weizhong. Zhang Zhan, who had been released in May last year after serving a four-year sentence, was re-arrested a few months later. In Myanmar, more than 200 journalists have been jailed since the military coup in 2021, with 51 believed to be currently behind bars.

In addition to threats and arrests of journalists, repressive laws are being introduced to stifle press freedom.

Over the past five years since the imposition of Beijing’s draconian national security law in Hong Kong, press freedom has been almost entirely dismantled in the city and almost all independent news outlets shut down. More than 1,000 journalists have lost their jobs, while Hong Kong has plummeted in global press freedom indices, ranking 135 out of 180 in RSF’s index last year. In 2002, it was ranked 18th in the world, and until the crackdown in 2020 was one of the bastions of press freedom in Asia.

The introduction of a further domestic security law last year only makes conditions for journalists even more challenging. A new cybersecurity law introduced in March this year, aimed at strengthening the protection of the city’s critical infrastructure, carries with it further potential implications for whatever remains of freedom of expression online. The new law may grant the government excessive investigative powers to request information if it suspects an offence has been committed, therefore compromising data privacy.

In another concerning development in Hong Kong earlier this year, a former senior official at Meta – Facebook’s parent company – has claimed that a new censorship tool to monitor viral content in Hong Kong and Taiwan has been developed. These allegations raise significant concerns about user data privacy and the extent to which global tech companies might compromise their principles to access the Chinese market. Such tools could have implications for freedom of expression in democracies such as Taiwan too. Last month, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Hong Kong revealed that 65 per cent of its members surveyed say they self-censor, while 33 per cent are considering leaving the city due to the unravelling of press freedom.

Press freedom – and freedom of expression more broadly – is a fundamental human right, essential for any open society. A free, independent media helps keep people informed, ensures that debate is kept alive and that those in power can be held accountable.

I began my working life as a journalist, in Hong Kong, two months after the handover of the city to Chinese rule in 1997. In the five years I lived there, Hong Kong’s media was vibrant, dynamic and free. I was able to publish articles critical of the governments in both Beijing and Hong Kong. If I was still in Hong Kong today, those articles would never see the light of day and even writing them could land me in jail.

That is why today, on World Press Freedom Day, all of us who have freedom must speak out for Jimmy Lai, Zhang Zhan, Li Weizhong, Dong Yuyu, Sai Zaw Thaike and every other journalist in jail in Hong Kong, China, Myanmar and around the world. We must declare, loud and clear, that journalism is not a crime.

Benedict Rogers is a human rights activist and writer, senior director at Fortify Rights, co-founder of Hong Kong Watch and author of “The China Nexus: Thirty Years In and Around the Chinese Communist Party’s Tyranny”.

This article was published in The Independent on 3 May 2025.