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Morrison of Peking in "native" dress.

I was able to hold them [my publishers] hostage! : Dave Lindorff, a freelance foreign correspondent who had been told once too often that his cheque was in the mail. Lindorff believes that distant editors' often have preconceptions about Hong Kong which influence the way reporters are then asked to write about it .They demand rewrites and frequently forget to pay.

Many people in mainland China do not understand very much about the nature of China's resumption of sovereignty over Hong Kong. They think that after the transition, Hong Kong will look like the mainland, and that they will be able to come here to make a living. Worst of all, some legends have been spreading. Hong Kong will become a battlefield!. . . Ridiculous!: "Old Timer", a diarist on the Web site, Hong Kong Lives in Transition.

American Public Television has launched a web site which records the handover to China through the diaries of Hong Kong residents. The site includes an extensive history of Hong Kong, a photo tour of the city and opportunities for site visitors to post questions to the diarists and discuss the events occurring there. Brian Clark is the producer of the project. He's also President of Global Media Design who spearheaded the design and content efforts.

There is unquestionably a risk of wild, inaccurate and irresponsible reporting. . .However, it is our job to try to convey both the facts and the feel of the situation, as honestly as we can, regardless of who we please or anger: Mike Chinoy, CNN's Hong Kong Bureau Chief.

Mike Chinoy says that some of the hordes of reporters who will come for the handover will expect to see "Tiananmen Two : the butchers of Beijing sweeping through Hong Kong. He says the "storm clouds" correspondents have been charting are real. But he adds that there are layers of details, complexities, subleties and uncertainties will determine which direction the storm will take.

These guys who are claiming we are being negative, they seem not to understand the basic function of news. . .It is not our job to be cheerleaders. : Keith Richburg.

Mr. Richburg is the Southeast Asia Bureau Chief for the Washington Post. He was the paper's African Bureau Chief from 1991 to 1994 after serving as the Philippines correspondent from 1986. He says that journalists have a duty to report "accurately and fairly", irrespective of whether such reports are bad for business.(See Thomas or Chua).

The media are mis-using the freedom they are getting. They are not reporting truthfully! : Robert Chua.

Mr.Chua is Chief Executive of CE TV, an Asian based satellite television station. He is currently producing a "positive" documentary of the Hong Kong handover, which will be sold to Chinese state television. He was speaking at meeting to launch "Advance Hong Kong"; a campaign to send representatives around the world to counter bad publicity from correspondents reporting China. (See Richburg).

The public do not want government propaganda from Radio Television Hong Kong [RTHK]. We never act that way. That is why we have gained credibility. : M.L. Ng.

M.L. Ng is the host of a two hour , live talkback radio program, Talkabout, broadcast of RTHK from Monday to Friday.The program seeks to make legislators and officials accountable to the public through questions and open discussion.

What newsmen are looking for is rioting in the streets, the People's Liberation Army marching down the road with fixed bayonets: Ted Thomas.

Ted Thomas, public relations specialist and former journalist, believes that Hong Kong could be facing a public relations disaster with the handover. He wants to mobilise journalists and broadcasters to visit their colleagues around the world. Mr Thomas wants them to carry the message that business will continue to boom in Hong Kong. (See Richburg above).

They are calling me a censor. I am not! : Feng Xiliang, the South China Morning Post's new editorial advisor.

Mr. Feng is a journalist who has worked at the most senior levels of mainland China's communist press. While he has lived outside China for a number of years and is a well regarded associate of Hawaii's East West Centre, his appointment at the Post has stirred controversy among Hong Kong journalists concerned about possible censorship.

As a true union, the Hong Kong Journalists Association will have more work to do as a watchdog [after the hand over], to try to get things on the record: Lai Pui Yee.

Lai Pui Yee is vice chair person of the Hong Kong Journalists Association. A US trained investigative journalist working as a freelance reporter, she currently hosts a talk back radio show on RTHK radio.

In South Africa we were covering the birth of democracy. In Hong Kong we may be covering its death! : Mark Austin, ITN's Asia Correspondent.

Just when you had thought you thought you had seen media circuses, here comes the Hong Kong handover. But as Alan Knight reports, Hong Kong bureaucrats are determined to avoid the journalistic excesses of the past.

The permanent tension between order and freedom: Newt Gingrich.

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives was making his only public speech on a ten day Asian tour, on the eve of his visit to greater China. He expressed concern about the preservation what he called the key elements of Hong Kong society -- the rule of law, an independent civil service and judiciary, respect for civil liberties, freedom of religion and a free press.

Journalists all over the region envied the contempt in which we [Hong Kong journalists] were held : Derek Davies

Derek Davies was editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review for a quarter a century; developing it from a somewhat obscure Hong Kong Based business paper, to one of the region's leading sources of informed news and analyses. He argues here that British civil servants largely ignored the Hong Kong media, allowing it to flourish and become the free-est press in the region.

Maybe we are replacing one set of [colonial] masters with another: Emily Lau, Hong Kong's first democratically elected female legislator.

Emily Lau is a Legislative Council representative for Hong Kong's New Territories. A former correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review, she is a past chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association. Ms. Lau is a leader of the Hong Kong based, pro-democracy group, The Frontier.

Virtual Censorship: Policing the internet in Asia

China wants to impose the sort of censorship applied to newspapers and electronic media. It frequently jams international radio broadcasts and pressured Hong Kong's Star (satellite) Television to remove BBC news from the East Asia footprint.

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