Who gets the rights to newsgathering? Media credentialing and press freedom in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia

Abstract

PurposeAgainst the background of the 2019 anti-extradition bill protests, this paper aims to examine the legal-political negotiations over equal press rights in Hong Kong, focusing specifically on “the rights to newsgathering” – the rights of all journalistic actors to get access to certain places and events to collect first-hand news information, such as on the streets, during protests and in government events.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a comparative approach to the question of equal press rights by comparing Hong Kong’s situations with those of Taiwan and Malaysia. Drawing upon secondary sources such as existing studies and news archives, this paper attempts to delineate the legal-political negotiations over equal press rights in the three places in the past two decades.FindingsThis paper finds that in Hong Kong, there are signs of increasing suppression of press rights amidst the city’s authoritarian backlash in recent years. While the Hong Kong Government was willing to broaden the rights of online independent media a few years back, it has started to tighten its control over them after the 2019 anti-extradition bill protests. Without a constitutional guarantee of equal press rights, it remains to be seen how the online independent media would fare in the future, especially after the introduction of the national security law.Originality/valueWhile Hong Kong is home to a variety of non-mainstream media, the issue of their press status has remained largely unrecognized by the public. This paper pays attention to this understudied yet important issue.