DATELINE: HONG KONG
The thin line between self censorship and responsible
journalism: Alan Castro.
Introduction: Alan Castro, 71, is a
columnist and former Editor In Chief of the Hong Kong Standard
newspaper. A former foreign correspondent, Mr. Castro describes
himself as "Eurasian" whose family came to Hong Kong from the
Portuguese administered enclave of Macau. He was a founding member of
the pro-Beijing Hong Kong Journalists Federation.
Castro:
"There are bound to be changes here. All of my working career has
been in a British colony. There were things we could not say; oppose
the British empire for example. They have their own network of
pressure you know, to keep you away from jobs and to keep people away
from you. Hong Kong is a small village after all. All the people who
ran this place in the old days were all colonial Taipans who ran the
bank, businesses who ran everything. This has trained us to develop
an instinct to know what we should say and what we should not say.
But I was still able to say a lot and I dare say that the people who
are unfriendly with China will be able to say a lot too, far more
than what I have been able to say under the British.
Knight: Do you see self censorship occurring in journalism everywhere?
Castro: "I have been in the business for fifty years and I have never found censorship constraining to the point where I have been paralysed. But what is self censorship and what is good sense, is a very thin line you know. When something happens and you decide that its a good story but if you do that story it is going to do you a lot of harm and your people a lot of harm, I as a responsible journalist have to decide. If the story is published then maybe everyone reads it but by tomorrow it is finished. But you are going to suffer for many, many days afterwards. Was it worthwhile running the story? Or was it worthwhile running the story that way? Perhaps I will decide not. Or perhaps I will decide to run it in such a way that will not create too much hardship. That is called self censorship, but in fact it is good and responsible journalism. One must draw a balance between responsible journalism and being afraid to publish because you think they may come down and put you in jail.
Knight: A recent survey of Hong Kong journalists showed they were less afraid of [retaliation by] the British than by Beijing. Is that a fair assessment?
Castro: "Yes, because they have a very weird perception of the Chinese. If they were living in China proper, I dare say their fears would be justified. We are not. They are going to be living in Hong Kong and its very, very clear that the Chinese don't give an 'F' what you say of them. In days when they were not so strong and self confident, they were much more sensitive. But today China is very strong and very confident economically especially and they have a very high status in the world. They are far more tolerant of what you say of them and will take a lot more than before. That's the difference.
In Hong Kong, we have the Basic Law. People like Patten are saying they won't uphold it. But if you do think the agreement between the Chinese and the British means something, then the ordinary person has nothing to fear.
Knight: But China has a constitution too which among other things guarantees freedom of speech. Might they interpret the Basic Law differently?
Castro: "But we interpret it ourselves. As long as we don't advocate subversion or organise a party to say bring down the communist government, that is not going to be. You can even criticise the communist government and say that over the border, they are boshing up everything. They would not care. We are doing it. They would not care and they said they would not care.
People like for you for instance, you live abroad, but here I not only go through the whole file of the [international] agencies, but I go through all of the newscasts of the Americans, Australia and or course, China. So I also listen in Chinese and I see their television. I see their people in the streets and they are far from being oppressed. The have panel talks and talk shows where people ring up. They have the same thing. Of course the calls are screened. But that happens everywhere to prevent cranks. There is very, very strong criticism of local governments and domestic things. of course there are not dissident saying,' Down with Deng!'. That would not be permitted. In Hong Kong, we would not be permitted to say that either, even though it is not a breach of the Basic Law.
But that is where self censorship will occur. 'I will be discreet. I will be prudent'. But as a journalist you would know there are ways of saying the same thing by using different words.