OP-EDS

The death of Ted Turner, who founded CNN in 1980 as the world’s first 24-hour television news channel, is a poignant reminder of the glory days of the fourth estate. CNN made day-and-night news coverage, including at the front line of battlefields, an everyday experience for many people.

The rise of the internet and ever more channels of news delivery has enabled a global audience of news consumers, attuned to reports delivered from all around the world. This has turned the most successful news providers into some of the most powerful and influential communication tools of our time.

Such power and influence are not lost on political leaders and interest groups. Nowadays, it is hard to imagine a major news outlet not taking a side in politics or having behind it some powerful political figure. For the high-minded, this is, of course, a disappointing turn of events for the journalistic profession.

In one of the Spider-Man films, Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben tells him: “With great power comes great responsibility.” For those in the news business, any abuse of that power not only represents a denial of responsibility but also a betrayal of journalistic values. Sadly, such cases exist.

Ironically, it is what remains of people’s respect for journalism and the noble values of the fourth estate that have given some in the news business a sense of self-importance – and a false sense of security. Many believe the press can do no wrong; some even believe the media can behave with impunity.

Take Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s Apple Daily newspaper. Now defunct, Apple Daily was once a popular, if not the most popular, tabloid in Hong Kong. It attracted the attention of the authorities for its vociferous coverage of the government’s extradition bill, which was an attempt to improve and streamline the judicial process of extradition. In 2021, after 26 years, the Chinese-language newspaper’s popularity and influence came to an end. A national security crackdown led to the arrest of several Apple Daily staff members, including Lai himself.

Perhaps Lai thought his newspaper gave him a licence to print whatever he wished, that press freedom conferred an immunity from the scrutiny of the law: a get-out-of-jail-free card. Maybe he felt that nobody could touch him even if he were to commit the most serious of crimes.

What we do know is that, for his overreach in calling for international sanctions on Hong Kong and mainland China, he was convicted in a court of law and sentenced to jail. For two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces under the national security law and a third count of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious articles in breach of local legislation, Lai was given 20 years in jail. Clearly, he was not so much reporting the news as making it up.

Calling for another country, particularly one that is not too friendly, to harm your own through sanctions is a very serious crime. In many countries, it constitutes an act of treason. It most certainly constitutes a serious threat to national security.

That Lai happened to own and run a popular newspaper was neither here nor there; if anything, it worsened the seriousness of the crime. There is a world of difference between a nobody shouting at the top of his voice for sanctions on his own country and a powerful news mogul with connections in high places calling for the same.

It is high time the news reporting profession was restored to its honourable and rightful place. To ignore or condone the Jimmy Lais and Apple Dailies of the world is to condone and encourage the hypocrisy and abuses we see in modern-day news reporting.

It is also an insult to the basic premise of the rule of law that everyone is equal before it. Why should a publisher or journalist be “more equal” than anyone else? Why should a news reporter deserve special rights or immunity from the reach of the law – especially when it comes to crimes involving national security?

Perhaps we can honour Turner’s legacy by standing firm on our resolution not to allow the news reporting profession to slip down the dangerous slope of abuse and deceit. Perhaps the convicted Lai and defunct Apple Daily can still do some good for the profession by reminding us of how slippery and dangerous that slope is.