Hong Kong residents believe press freedom is on the wane

Jun 11, 2009, 9:04 GMT

   Hong Kong - A majority of people in Hong Kong believe that press freedom in the former British colony has diminished in recent years, according to a survey released Thursday.

   Fifty-four per cent of respondents to the survey by the territory's Democratic Party said they believed the Hong Kong media were practising an increasing amount of self-censorship.

   More than three quarters of interviewees said they believed the city of 7 million needed a freedom of information law, researchers said.

   The findings follow the annual rankings by international pro-democracy group Freedom House which found Hong Kong had dropped from 61st to 75th spot globally since 2001 in terms of press freedoms.

   Hong Kong's press freedoms came under the spotlight this week when the city's Department of Justice decided not to prosecute two bodyguards working for the daughter of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe for allegedly assaulting two photographers.

   The photographers, working for Britain's Sunday Times newspaper, were involved in a scuffle with the bodyguards after taking pictures of the house where Bona Mugabe is living while she studies at university in Hong Kong.

   Hong Kong was a British colony for 156 years before reverting to Chinese rule in 1997 under a 'one country, two systems' arrangement that guarantees personal and political freedoms.