Ethical Concerns of Hong Kong Press Media EMBA 2007 Group 7
Seminar on Current Business
And
Management Issues
Study on
Ethical Concerns in Hong Kong Press Media
Submitted to Prof. Andrew Chan
From EMBA 2007 Group 7
Albert Leung, Raymond Ho, Agnes Chu, Calvin Lai, Sarah Liu
April 21, 2007
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Oxygen of democracy 3
3. Challenges of facing Media 3
4. Research surveys used in study 5
5. Survival or Ethics? 6
6. Government regulatory 7
7. Self-regulatory mechanism 10
7.1 Code of Ethics of Media Associations 10
7.1.1 Hong Kong Journalist Association (HKJA) 11
7.1.2 Hong Kong News Executives’ Association (HKNEA) 12
7.1.3 Hong Kong Federation of Journalists (HKFJ) 12
7.1.4 Hong Kong Press Photographers’ Association (HKPPA) 12
7.1.5 Hong Kong Press Council (HKPC) 13
7.2 Comparison of Code of Ethics 13
7.2.1 Effectiveness of Code of Ethics from Associations 14
8. Benchmarking with Other Countries 14
9. Recommendations 16
9.1 Enforcement of statutory bodies 16
9.2 Enforcement of Independent Bodies 17
9.3 Assertion of the role of virtue 19
1. Introduction
Mass Media has long been an indispensable part of people’s lives. They not only reflect what people think and act, but also affect and help to shape the economy, cultural and social values. Given its importance, journalism is a profession which demands a high standard. However, in recent years there has been a lot of criticism on the ethical issues of Hong Kong. Sensationalism, violence and media bias has become great concerns for the public. The crux of media is credibility, which is usually painfully gained and easily lost. The media research shows an alarming for the lack of trust of the public towards mass media. This paper aims to discuss the ethical challenge facing the media. So far the media has been replying on the self-regulatory mechanism, we will evaluate what have been done so far and see whether they are effective enough. The research methodology of this study is mainly through interview with key persons of news industry in Hong Kong. We shall also provide recommendation to the industry people, including the journalists and media boss, with the aim to rebuild the trust on journalism as a profession in the long run.
1.1 Objectives:
Through our research we hope to draw to the attention of media industry people, including the journalists and media boss, the public’s opinion on the industry. We shall also provide recommendations on monitoring and regulating, so as to rebuild the public trust on journalism as a profession in the long run.
1.2 Methodology:
We shall take reference of the public surveys by Hong Kong Journalists (1999) and Society for Truth and Light (2006) and the survey in 2006 held by the University of Hong Kong, together with Hong Kong Performing Artists Guild (香港演藝人協會). To have a better understanding of the industry, we have interviewed 6 representatives from different areas, namely Professor Kenneth Leung who teaches media ethics in the Chinese University of Hong Kong; Mr. Tai Keen Man from RTHK who is the assistant director of Broadcasting (Radio) of RTHK; Dr Lo Wing Hung, the CEO of Sing Tao Newspaper; Mr. Andrew Cheng, General Manager from Apple Daily; a reporter from Hong Kong Economic Times and Ms. Joanne Cheung, senior reporter from Next Magazine. Through the academic point of view, and people from the decent media, and representatives from controversial media, we shall have a more comprehensive picture. The summary of the interviews are summarized in Appendix 1.
2. Oxygen of democracy
A free press can only flourish in a free society. Some people call a free press “the oxygen of democracy”, because one cannot survive without the other. The role of a free and responsible press is to provide information to the people by faithfully reporting facts without fear or favor. In a democratic society, it may serve as the watchdog for the governmental institutions and beneficial groups who offend public benefits. As early as 200 years ago, the French political writer Alexis de Tocqueville when visiting the United States said, "You can't have real newspapers without democracy, and you can't have democracy without newspapers," Finley Peter Dunne, a 19th century American writer also said that a journalist’s job is “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”. The primary role of journalism remained unchanged for generations, it is to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in a free society.
Journalism, as important as it is, is a profession and a craft, as journalists draw on specialized skills and stick to common standards. It demands the highest standard, as other profession like doctors and lawyers, if not greater given its influence to the society. However, like other industries, mass media are mostly private-owned and have to generate profit to sustain its business. It also faces keen competition for survival.
3. Challenges of facing Media
After the return of Hong Kong, the biggest threat to media freedom turns out to be not the over control from China, but the falling of ethical standards in local reporting. Notorious examples are many. For example, in the Chan Kin Hong Incident, Apple Daily paid to create the story of Chan photographed in bed with two prostitutes, just a few days after his wife committed suicide and murdered their two children. The Eastweek published the naked photo of famous female artists who were kidnapped; later the magazine closed due to too much criticism. In recent years the Easy Finder also published the young artist Gill changing clothes in a private room. All these spark off the outrage of public. This has promoted calls from legislators, government official and even journalist to curb on the behavior of the industry.
3.1 Sensationalism
Sensationalism becomes the main stream of popular newspaper. Exaggeration, distortion of news and pornography photos becomes the cover or news headline. “When survival becomes the dominant concern, market considerations outweigh all”, states in the Hong Kong Journalists Association annual report (1998), “Sensationalism, violence and sex have increasingly become the language of the media- the two dominant dailies leading the way, and the rest resisting at their peril.”
3.2 Self-censorship
Apart from sensationalism, there is another area of media bias that is self-censorship. The threat to journalism also comes from information monopolies, censorship and surveillance. Although there have been no major allegations of self-censorship over the years, the pressure is building when the media operate just according to business logic. When the media becomes an organization within a financial group, it will lead to a homogenization of the directions. Diversity becomes a lesser concern if there is a conflict of interest once the coverage diverts from the views of the financial group. When we look at the media landscape in Hong Kong, it is dominated by several groups. There are also cases when financial group withdraw advertisements from a newspaper, such as Cheong Kong has implicit policy not to use Next group in its advertising campaign for its heavy criticism to the Cheong Kong. All these exert financial pressure on the media. There was also concern on the newspaper on Hong Kong Economic Journal which was sold to Richard Li (son of Asia’s richest man Li Ka Shing) for HK$280 million. The Hong Kong Economic Journal is regarded as the last example in the outstanding Chinese tradition of intellectuals running newspaper. While most newspapers around the world are run as business enterprises or propaganda tools, whether the editorial of Hong Kong Economic Journal remain independent remain unknown and can only be proved by time.
4. Research surveys used in study
The concern on media ethics in Hong Kong is not mere speculation, there are evidence abound. Many organizations have since conducted survey on perceived ethical level of Hong Kong media and result wasn’t encouraging. In early 2006, the University of Hong Kong, together with Hong Kong Performing Artists Guild (香港演藝人協會), conducted a survey[1] on local tabloids and magazines, examining their level of privacy intrusion towards local artists. The result was alarming. The survey randomly picked 208 issues from a range of local entertainment/gossip magazines, and found 634 pictures that are on the brink of breaking the law. Another survey[2] conducted last year by the Society for Truth and Light (明光社), a nonprofit organization largely composed of professionals from education and social work background, indicated a decreasing satisfaction from public on media performance, with 44% of their respondents rated their satisfactory level below average, representing a 13.9% increase in discontent compare with the previous year. More than half of the respondents were discontented with privacy intrusion by media practitioners (58%), and equally were they unhappy with the general over-emphasis on sexual related reports (57%). Over 80% of respondents agreed media reports should be put under supervision.
Public isn’t the only one unhappy with the ethical level of media, the media practitioners themselves are equally dissatisfied. Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) conducted an internal survey in 1999[3], and among those 178 journalistic respondents, 77% believed ethics have worsen. Top of the ethics concern list was “sensational or disgusting photographs” (47%), “too much sex” (43%) and “exaggerated reports” (41%). Most believed “competition” (46%) and “commercial pressure” (42%) were the key reasons driving the fall of ethical standards. However the respondents comprehensively rejected a press council and media ethics laws (only 20% supported a press council with the powers to fine media outlets, and just 7% supported laws on media ethics). Most (69%), on the other hand, thought being more vocal to comment on ethical issues of public concern could help to improve ethical standard, and 42% supported to publish openly ethics committee findings. 64% of these journalistic respondents agreed that Hong Kong Journalists Association should set up a Hong Kong Media Ethics Forum, acting as a pressure group with no government involvement, to do ethics work.
5. Survival or Ethics?
According to survey results, we could not deny the fact that the mass media were suffering decreasing respect of Hong Kong citizens. But what attributed this phenomenon to Hong Kong citizens’ complaints about the decreasing ethics of journalists? To analysis the reasons behind the phenomenon, we have interviewed Professor Kenneth Leung who teaches media ethics in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. As the media companies are commercial entities, there are three considerations for them: 1) survival, 2) making profit 3) ethical concerns, in descending priority. It takes a lot of capital in investing in a newspaper or a magazine; the least entrance fee may be 20 million for a year. Especially when the media companies are listed, they need to be responsible for the shareholders, too, so profit will be their major concern.
Ethical issue is a very complex one. From the macro point of view, it involves the basic instinct of human being- curiosity, which is the driving force for the advancement of society. It is translated into social culture. “What kind of media depends on what kind of society, or in other words, the level of media corresponds to the level of society.” Kenneth says, “You get what you want”.
Does Ethics really costs? According to Value Shift by Lynn Sharp Paine, no matter ethics costs or ethics pays, ethics still counts. Even though there is never a perfect alignment between what is profitable and what is right, the company needs to apply both financial and ethical judgment and ethics cannot be reduced to financial calculation only. Especially when media industry is such powerful, it is supposed to uphold social morality and values. As anyone with power must be monitored, so is the media industry. We shall examine under the current practice, whether the monitoring is good enough to address the ethical concerns.
6. Government regulatory
Currently, the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA, 影視及娛樂事務管理處) is the only governmental body responsible for regulatory control on public media. Its scope of services includes broadcasting regulation, entertainment licensing, film classification and services, and newspaper registration. The newspaper registration section also enforces the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance (Cap. 390) 《淫褻及不雅物品管制條例》 (“COIAO”) which aims at dealing with publication and display of obscene and indecent articles. This will protect the well-being of young people by preventing their access to indecent materials while still allowing adults the freedom to information. The COIAO establishes a judicial body, the Obscene Articles Tribunal (淫褻物品審裁處) (OAT), to adjudicate on the offensiveness of articles submitted to it by publishers on a voluntary basis and by law enforcement agencies, or referred to it by magistracies in the course of a trial. The tribunal simply consists of a Presiding Magistrate and two or more adjudicators towards two tasks: classification and determination. The adjudicators are appointed by the Chief Justice. They serve for 3 years and come from general public through self-nomination. Since the adjudicators are randomly selected from a pool of nominated individuals, there is no guarantee as to the standard in making the adjudication.
Under the COIAO, articles are classified into three classes. An article is Class I if it is neither obscene nor indecent; Class II if it is indecent; and Class III if it is obscene. Indecent articles cannot be published to persons under the age of 18 and must carry a statutory warning notice while obscene articles are banned. However, the Ordinance has no clear guideline as to how the articles are to be classified into these categories (subjective). The role of TELA is to monitor the articles available on the market, submit them to the OAT for classification and refer them to the Police for investigation and prosecution where necessary. Visits to retail outlets are conducted to check the selling/renting of obscene and indecent articles. These outlets include bookshops, newspaper stalls, video shops and computer shops. The Customs and the Police are also the designated enforcement agencies under the COIAO.
According to the Ordinance, anyone who publishes, possesses the purpose of publishing a Class III article is liable to a fine of $1 million and imprisonment for 3 years while anyone who publishes an indecent article or fails to observe restrictions on Class II articles would be liable to a fine of $400,000 and imprisonment of 12 months on first conviction (increased to $800,000 fine for subsequent conviction).