Sebastien, who leads the #FreeJimmyLai campaign, last saw his father in August 2020 — weeks after Beijing imposed a national security law that led to a massive crackdown on pro-democracy advocates and journalists. Among them Lai, founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.

After nearly four years in Hong Kong’s maximum-security Stanley Prison and multiple delays to his trial, the aging British citizen was due to take the stand for the first time on November 20 on charges of sedition and conspiring to collude with foreign forces, which he denies.

Lai, who has diabetes, routinely spends over 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, with only 50 minutes for restricted exercise and limited access to daylight, according to his international lawyers.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has found that Lai is unlawfully and arbitrarily detained and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called for his release.

Responding to CPJ’s request for comment, a Hong Kong government spokesperson referred to a November 17 statement in which it said that Lai was “receiving appropriate treatment and care in prison” and that Hong Kong authorities “strongly deplore any form of interference.”

In an interview with CPJ, Sebastien spoke about Britain’s bilateral ties with China, as well as Hong Kong — a former British colony where his father arrived as a stowaway on a fishing boat at age 12, before finding jobs in a garment factory and eventually launched a clothing retail chain and his media empire.

What do you anticipate when your father takes the stand for the first time?

To be honest, I do not know. My father is a strong person, but the Hong Kong government has spent four years trying to break him. I don’t think they can break his spirit but with his treatment they are in the process of breaking his body. We will see the extent of that on the stand.

Your father turned 77 recently. How is he doing in solitary confinement?

The last time I saw my father was in August of 2020. I haven’t been able to return to my hometown since and therefore have been unable to visit him in prison. His health has declined significantly. He is now 77, and, having spent nearly four years in a maximum-security prison in solitary confinement, his treatment is inhumane. For his dedication to freedom, they have taken his away.

For his bravery in standing in defense of others, they have denied him human contact. For his strong faith in God, they have denied him Holy Communion.

We have seen governments across the political spectrum call for Jimmy Lai’s release —the U.S., the European Parliament, Australia, Canada, Germany, and Ireland, among others. What does that mean to you?

We are incredibly grateful for all the support from multiple states in calling for my father’s release. The charges against my father are sham charges. The Hong Kong government has weaponized their legal system to crack down on all who criticize them.

You met with the U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy recently, who said Jimmy Lai’s case remains a priority and the government will press for consular access. What would you like to see Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government do?

They have publicly stated that they want to normalize relationships with China and to increase trade. I don’t see how that can be achieved if there is a British citizen in Hong Kong in the process of being killed for standing up for the values that underpin a free nation and the rights and dignity of its citizens.

Any normalization of the relationship with China needs to be conditional on my father’s immediate release and his return to the United Kingdom.

Your father’s life story in many ways embodies Hong Kong’s ‘never-give-up’ attitude. Do you think Hong Kong journalists and pro-democracy activists will keep on fighting? What is your message to Beijing and the Hong Kong government?

I think most of the world shares his spirit. Hong Kong is unique because it’s a city of refugees. It’s a city where we were given many of the freedoms of the free world. And as a result, it flourished. We knew what we had and what we escaped from.

My message is to release my father immediately. A Hong Kong that has 1,900 political prisoners for democracy campaigning, is a Hong Kong that has no rule of law, no free press, one that disregards the welfare of its citizens. This is not a Hong Kong that will flourish.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Beh Lih Yi.

“I am like a lone flame of a candle in a big dark room. I can’t light the whole room but I light a small corner, and that corner is worth fighting for,” Ortega’s daughter, Michaella Ortega, recalled her father saying.  

Ortega was gunned down in 2011 outside a thrift store in Palawan, shortly after his morning broadcast – a platform he used to report on corruption within the government of now former Palawan provincial governor Joel Reyes.

More than 13 years later, Reyes – the alleged mastermind behind Ortega’s murder – remains at large, despite an outstanding arrest warrant against him. A gunman was sentenced to life in prison in 2013.

In March, CPJ and media freedom groups Free Press Unlimited and Reporters Without Borders met with Philippine authorities in the capital Manila to provide new information about where Reyes may be hiding. Philippine national police and the justice department pledged to take action.

Ortega’s murder is widely seen as emblematic of the entrenched impunity in the Southeast Asian country, where since 1992, 96 journalists have been killed in connection with their work.

The Philippines has been consistently listed as one of the world’s worst offenders on CPJ’s Global Impunity Index, which ranks countries where killers of journalists go free.

CPJ spoke with Michaella and her mother, Patria Ortega, about their hopes that the family’s fight for justice could help end this impunity, the power of journalism, and the failure to solve press killings in the Philippines. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The case has dragged on for 13 years. Why hasn’t full justice been served?

Patria: I don’t know if it’s the system, or the people inside the system. In our case, we have all the evidence. If the case doesn’t go anywhere, or we lose, then it’s a signal to the people.

Michaella: A lot of international organizations have rightfully assessed that the Gerry Ortega case is emblematic of the level of impunity in the Philippines. This is a very strong case, a lot of public interest, public pressure. Civil society organizations across sectors – environmentalists, human rights, journalists – have pushed for accountability and yet, it’s moving at a snail’s pace. It really shows you the deeply entrenched corruption.

Dad was a loud voice. A voice that held corrupt practices to account, a voice that was speaking truth to power – and then that voice was snuffed out. There was no way that the system could protect these voices.

This is almost the same copy-and-paste case of so many other cases in the Philippines, with strong voices of dissent – journalists, activists, priests, lawyers, anyone who says anything to someone in power – then the [perpetrators] get away with it.

He highlighted a number of issues through his journalism. Are they still relevant today?

Michaella: Very relevant. He was an anti-corruption advocate, he was also pro-environment, and then he did radio broadcast. He really wanted to make sure the government serves the people. It’s not only these issues are still relevant today, but that people like him are dwindling. These are the very voices that you need in times like this, but loud and brave voices are getting snuffed out. It’s very, very difficult to speak out anymore.

You said people like him are dwindling. What does that mean for local journalism?

Michaella: The media landscape is very different now. The killing of journalists, the injustice and impunity could continue to happen. It’s very difficult for us as people, as community to believe that anything can be better. It’s very difficult to convince people of that anymore. When dad was alive, he was the most popular radio commentator in Palawan. How’s that possible? It’s because, somehow, people were able to imagine a better world.

Ortega was threatened before he was killed, yet he continued with his radio broadcast.

Patria: He would say that if they kill you, they kill you. He was banking on his spirituality.

Michaella: He felt like it was his duty to serve the people.

What has it been like fighting for justice for 13 years?

Michaella: When we started out – in the first week after dad was killed – we were having conversations of how do we define what justice looks like. We were not into the thing that my dad was doing. I had just graduated from college, my mom was busy with her [veterinary] clinic – it was a different life that we were pulled into. Suddenly we were meeting lawyers, investigators, people from the government and we were in front of cameras. It was a weird thing when we had just lost someone. Nobody trained for us for this.

So as a way for us to regain some sense of agency, we were asking ourselves – how do we define justice? Why are we even doing this? Why are we showing up?

One of the ways that we have justified it to ourselves is that why we kept showing up is because of justice – obviously to see the conviction of the mastermind – but more importantly, it doesn’t stop there.

Real justice is when there’s enough of a change in the culture, in the system, that people like Gerry Ortega will survive, will thrive, and will have their voices heard.

Is this what keeps you going?

Patria: It’s a long fight. We have to start with the kids. I’m telling people, if there is only one person who talks about the evil of the society, most probably that person will die. But if there are more people [doing the same], then it’s going to be difficult to kill all of them.

Michaella: We show up hoping that it will have some effect. It becomes harder and harder each year – but definitely, if we can have some effect that someone like him would be protected, would not be shot, then we’ve shown that the system can exercise justice.

What do you want to see immediately?

Patria: I want the trial to proceed. I want the case to be done. A conviction.

Michaella: The thing we asked for is for it to go through trial. A fair trial. It has stopped because of technicalities and motions. [The alleged mastermind] escapes justice, becomes a fugitive, we can’t even have a trial. Here’s someone who clearly shows disrespect [to the judicial system].

What do you hope to see next now that new leads of the case have been given to the Philippine authorities?

Patria: I hope the government will act on it. When you don’t shine light on evil people, they will continue do their thing.

Michaella: We fight because we hope to be able to contribute to our community. We have fought precisely because of that kind of support from civil society that we’re not left behind to fend for ourselves. That’s the reason why we can continue to show up. We wouldn’t be able to fight if other people stopped showing up first.

Everyone continues to show up, continues to knock on doors, finding the next window [of opportunity for justice], that’s the major reason why we even have any kind of energy to continue do this.

It’s traumatizing, it’s difficult. We do want to move on with our lives. My dad wouldn’t have wanted us to have a life that’s defined by someone’s murder.  

So [this fight] has to be bigger than that. It being an emblematic case, it being a case that may have some repercussions on the justice system or our culture, then it matters to show up.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Beh Lih Yi.

“We are committed to the media within our cultural frameworks. Private media can continue to be free and independent. They can continue their activities,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said at the first news conference two days after the fall of Kabul on August 15, 2021.

Two years later, the Taliban not only has reneged on that pledge, but intensified its crackdown on what was once a vibrant media landscape in Afghanistan.

Here is a look of what happened to Afghan media and journalists since the 2021 takeover:

What is the state of media freedom in Afghanistan?

Since the fall of Kabul, the Taliban have escalated a crackdown on the media in Afghanistan. CPJ has extensively documented cases of censorship, assaults, arbitrary arrests, home searches, and restrictions on female journalists in a bid to muzzle independent reporting.

Despite their public pledge to allow journalists to work freely, Taliban operatives and officials from the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) – the Taliban’s intelligence agency – have assaulted, arbitrarily arrested and detained journalists, while shutting down local news outlets and banning broadcasts of a number of international media from inside the country. Foreign correspondents face visa restrictions to return to Afghanistan to report.

Journalists continue to be arrested for their job. Since August 2021, at least 64 journalists have been detained in Afghanistan in retaliation for their work, according to CPJ’s research. They include Mortaza Behboudi, a co-founder of the independent news site Guiti News, who has been held since January.

Afghan journalists have fled in huge numbers, mostly to neighboring countries like Pakistan and Iran. Many who left are now stuck in legal limbo without clear prospects of resettlement to a third country, and their visas are running out, prompting fears they could be arrested and deported back to Afghanistan.

What trends have emerged in the last two years?

The Taliban have not ceased their efforts to stifle independent reporting, with the GDI emerging as the main driving force behind the crackdown. The few glimmers of hope that CPJ noted in its 2022 special report on Afghanistan’s media crisis are dimming as independent organizations like Ariana News and TOLO News face both political and economic pressures and Taliban intelligence operatives detained at least three journalists they claimed were reporting for Afghan media in exile.

The Taliban are also broadening their target to take aim at social media platforms, enforcing new regulations targeting YouTube channels this year while officials mull a ban on Facebook.

A clampdown on social media would further tighten the space for millions of Afghans to freely access information. The rapid deterioration of the media landscape has led to some Afghan YouTubers taking on the role of citizen journalists, covering issues from politics to everyday lives on their channels.

Meanwhile, the Taliban are seeking to end their international isolation. In recent weeks, they have sent a delegation to Indonesia and held talks with officials from the United States as the group tried to shore up the country’s ailing economy and struggle with one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. with more than half of its 41 million population relying on aid to survive.

A worsening media repression, however, is pushing Afghanistan deeper into isolation from the world, hurting its economy and people’s livelihoods, as CPJ’s Beh Lih Yi writes in an op-ed for Nikkei Asia.

What is CPJ hearing from Afghan journalists?

Even two years after the fall of Kabul, we hear from Afghan journalists on a near-daily basis – both from those who remain inside the country and those who are in exile – on the hostile environment they are facing.

Afghanistan remains one of the top countries for CPJ’s exile support and assistance to journalists. Since 2021, Afghan journalists have become among the largest share of exiled journalists getting support each year from CPJ, and contributed to a jump of 227 percent in CPJ’s overall exile support for journalists during a three-year period from 2020-2022. The support they received included immigration support letters and grants for necessities like rent and food.

We also increasingly received reports from exiled Afghan journalists who were being targeted in immigration-related cases. Afghan journalists who have sought refuge in Pakistan told us they have been arrested and extorted for overstaying their visas, and many are living in hiding and in fear.

What does CPJ recommend to end the Taliban’s media crackdown and help Afghan journalists forced into exile?

There are several actions we can take. Top of the list is to continue urging the international community to pressure the Taliban to respect the rights of the Afghan people and allow the country to return to a democratic path, including by allowing a free press.

The global community and international organizations should use political and diplomatic influence – including travel bans and targeted sanctions – to pressure the Taliban to end their media repression and allow journalists to freely report without fear of reprisal.

Foreign governments should streamline visa and broader resettlement processes, and support exiled journalists in continuing their work, while collaborating with appropriate agencies to extend humanitarian and technical assistance to journalists who remain in Afghanistan.

CPJ is also working with other rights groups to advocate for the implementation of recommendations that include those in its 2022 special report on Afghanistan’s media crisis. (Read CPJ’s complete list of 2022 recommendations here.)  

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Beh Lih Yi.

Jahesh is one of many exiled Afghan journalists still in limbo more than 18 months after the Taliban seized power, forcing hundreds of thousands of Afghans to flee. Those who left included hundreds of journalists seeking refuge as the Taliban cracked down on the country’s previously vibrant independent media landscape.

While some journalists found shelter in Europe or the U.S., those unable to move beyond neighboring Pakistan are in increasingly dire straits. Unable to find jobs without work authorization, their visas are running out as they struggle with the snail-paced process of resettlement to a third country. Pakistan, which last year announced it would expedite 30-day transit visas for Afghans going to other countries, is now taking harsher steps against those in the country without valid documents. In March, the government announced new restrictions limiting their movements. At least 1,100 Afghans have been deported in recent months, according to a Guardian report citing Pakistani human rights lawyer Moniza Kakar.

Pakistan is not a signatory to the U.N. refugee convention stating that refugees should not be forced to return to a country where they face threats to their life or freedom, and Afghan journalists told CPJ they fear the Taliban’s hardline stance on the media would put them at particular risk if they were sent back.

Some journalists told CPJ they have to pay exorbitant fees to renew a visa and applications can take months to be processed. Those without valid visas live in hiding for fear of detention or extortion. Even those with the proper documentation said they have been harassed by local authorities. The uncertainty, they say, has put a strain on their mental health.  

“People are worried about being identified and arrested if they go out to try to renew their visas. The risk of deportation is putting everyone under pressure,” said Jahesh, who suspended his plan to sell his kidney following a donation after tweeting his desperate offer in February.

The situation is “dire,” said Ahmad Quraishi, executive director of the advocacy group Afghanistan Journalists Center, which estimates there are at least 150 Afghan journalists in Pakistan. He called on embassies to prioritize resettlement applications of at-risk journalists. 

CPJ spoke with five other exiled Afghan journalists in Pakistan who are facing visa issues. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Ahmad Ferooz Esar, a former journalist with Arezo TV and Mitra TV, fled to Pakistan in December 2021 with his wife, also a journalist. He was briefly detained in early February and is in hiding after speaking out about his detention.

On the night of February 3, the police entered our house and arrested me and a number of other Afghans living there. I asked the police why I was being arrested, they didn’t say anything. They asked me about my job and what I did in Afghanistan, I was very afraid. They did not even check our passport or visa status.

We were taken to the police station. They asked for money. Before my mobile phone was taken away, I shared my arrest with some media colleagues in Islamabad. With their help, I got out later and I gave media interviews in which I talked about police corruption. I stated the facts, but the police came looking for me later. We had to leave the house.

We are living in fear. Every moment we fear they may find out our current address and come here to arrest me. Please help me and my wife escape from this horror and destruction. There is no way for us to go back to Afghanistan.

Khatera Ahmadi, a former news presenter with Afghan broadcaster TOLONews, fled to Pakistan in July 2022. A photo of her covering her face on-air following an order by the Taliban was one of the most widely shared images illustrating the restrictions on female journalists in the country.  

I had to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban came to power and after the threats that were made against me. I got the visa and came to Pakistan with my husband, who is also a journalist. It’s been eight months now, we’re in a bad situation. We can’t travel freely in Pakistan. We have to go to the Torkham border [a border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan that some Afghans are required visit every two months] to renew our visas, but the Taliban might arrest me there.

I cannot go anywhere, my family cannot transfer me money, I cannot make the [rental] contract for the house. We can’t do anything here.

Medina Kohistani, a former journalist with TOLONews, fled to Pakistan a year ago. She said there has been heightened anxiety among exiled Afghan journalists in Pakistan.

The police always patrol the streets and markets and check the visas and passports of Afghans. In some cases, they enter buildings and check the visas and residence permits of Afghan refugees.

In one case, several people, including journalists, had been arrested over visa issues, and were later released after paying a bribe. My friend, who is a journalist, did not have money to pay the fines after his visa expired, he is living in constant fear.

Ahmad, who asked to be identified only by his first name, has been living in Islamabad for about 10 months. He was forced to flee Afghanistan after he was detained by the Taliban over his reporting.

I have seen that most Afghan journalists have had to buy their [Pakistan] visas for US$1,200 to be able to flee Afghanistan and now, their visas have expired. Even though they tried to apply for an extension, they didn’t get an answer. The only way to get a visa is by paying a bribe, which is impossible, given the financial situations of many Afghan journalists.

I personally witnessed one of the journalists whose visa has expired…pay a bribe to the police. I cannot provide more details as I may face more risks to discuss that.

An Afghan journalist in Pakistan, who is also a father of three children aged 5 to 14. He fled to Pakistan over a year ago and asked not to be named for the security of his family.

Pakistan does not provide education for our children, public and private schools do not enroll our children. This is a really big issue. What will be the future of these children while there is no hope for a third country resettlement?

When we fled Afghanistan, we had a small amount of cash savings that we kept with us. We had just enough to get by with those savings in the beginning, now we have to sell our belongings like my wife’s jewelries for cash and for food.

There are no other options, we can’t go back to Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior did not respond to a request seeking comment for this article, including the allegations of bribery.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Beh Lih Yi.

His photographs, showing a group of men beating a Hong Kong pro-democracy protester and pulling him into the Chinese consulate grounds in Manchester at the protest, were widely published and eventually led to Beijing removing six diplomats.

They include Consul-General Zheng Xiyuan, who was identified in the photos. He initially denied assaulting the protester but said later he had been trying to protect his colleagues.

“It was not something I had expected,” said Leung, who left Hong Kong for England in early 2022 following a crackdown on press freedom in the city.

He is among a growing number of Hong Kong journalists now reporting from overseas due to the shrinking space for independent reporting back home, with new outlets set up and managed from places like the United Kingdom and Australia.

These include The Chaser, a U.K.-based website founded by Hong Kong journalists last year, where Leung’s photos of the Manchester consulate violence first appeared, before they were widely republished by other media including The Guardian and The Financial Times.

“The response was overwhelming, the calls were nonstop,” Leung told CPJ in a video interview from his home in Manchester.

“It is up to overseas Hong Kong journalists to follow what’s happening to the Hong Kong diaspora closely, we couldn’t expect international journalists to do the same,” he added.

New outlets

Once a bastion of press freedom in Asia, Hong Kong’s vibrant media landscape has suffered an unprecedented decline since June 2020 when Beijing imposed the national security law, which has been used to stifle free speech and silence dissent.

The arrests of journalists and closure of prominent news outlets triggered “widespread panic” and an all-time low for press freedom, according to the Hong Kong Journalists Association, which has assessed conditions for journalists in an annual index since 2013.

Among those who are on trial is Jimmy Lai, founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and winner of CPJ’s 2021 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award, who faces life imprisonment under the national security law. He has been in prison since December 2020, one of eight Hong Kong journalists on CPJ’s December 1, 2022, prison census. 

Separately, former Stand News chief editors Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam are on trial and could be jailed if convicted of breaking a British colonial-era sedition law. The news outlet shutdown in December 2021 after it was raided by some 200 national security police.

But many Hong Kong journalists who have left the city following the clampdown have banded together to continue their reporting from abroad.

One example includes Green Bean Media, set up by a group of former Hong Kong journalists now living in the U.K. The Chinese-language site produces a weekly news analysis program, commentaries, as well as coverage focusing on life among the Hong Kong diaspora in Britain.

Others include Commons, with coverage ranging from Hong Kong’s judicial independence to the government’s approach to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, and The Points, the latest website run by Hong Kong journalists abroad, which started in January. Both outlets have remote staff on different continents.

“What it shows is that there will be still be a free Hong Kong media [but] unfortunately it won’t be in Hong Kong,” said Steve Vines, director of the Association of Overseas Hong Kong Media Professionals and a journalist who spent over three decades in Hong Kong until he left in mid-2021.

Funding need

The association launched as a professional membership body in October last year to help the growing number of overseas Hong Kong journalists find opportunities and promote their work, as well as defend press freedom in Hong Kong. The U.K.-registered group has ex-Hong Kong journalists now based in Asia, Australia, and North America on its committee.

“People are determined to keep alive the idea and the tradition of having a free Hong Kong media,” added Vines, who hosted the English-language current affairs TV program The Pulse on Hong Kong’s public broadcaster RTHK until the show was axed in July 2021.

Like other media run by exiled journalists, the new overseas Hong Kong news outlets will need to ensure their long-term financial sustainability to survive.

The majority of the new outlets remain free to read, although some like Green Bean Media and The Chaser have introduced monthly fees for supporters ranging from 6.50  to 34.50 euros (US$7-37).

“We don’t have the financial sustainability yet to recruit full-timers to work,” said Gloria Chan, co-founder of Green Bean Media, where over 90% of her team are freelancers.

Green Bean Media has gained about 2,000 members since launching last July, but Chan said she has been struggling to find funding to expand the website.

“We need to work it out and get the funding as soon as possible,” Chan told CPJ by phone. “It’s difficult to make sure the money [has no strings attached] when we need to have a completely independent source of income.”

Chinese influence

Ensuring Hong Kong journalists can continue to report from overseas helps diversify the media in their host countries, but also adds a critical perspective at a time when Chinese influence is expanding in industries ranging from technology to energy.

Authorities in Germany, Canada, and Japan are among those investigating a 2022 report by Madrid-based campaign group Safeguard Defenders alleging Beijing had established a covert police presence in several countries to monitor Chinese citizens living abroad. Chinese officials have denied the claims. 

“Hong Kong reporters, or people with a Hong Kong media background, are helping other organizations to report on China’s infiltration of, for example, universities or key strategic industries in Britain,” said Vines.

But journalists are also keen to bring attention to the territory they have left behind.

“Please keep your eyes on Hong Kong, don’t walk away,” said Nina Loh, a former producer at RTHK who moved to Australia in mid-2021. She has since worked on stories about the Tiananmen crackdown commemorative vigil and lives of Hong Kong immigrants in Australia for the Australian broadcaster SBS.

“It’s normal when people shift their attention to other news after a while but, please, don’t give up on Hong Kong,” she added.

Leung, who photographed the consulate violence, shared the same sentiment.

Besides freelancing for The Chaser after he arrived in Manchester, he worked temporarily as traffic warden and environmental enforcement officer for the local city council, until he was recently offered a contract job with an international broadcaster,

“Of course I would like to return to Hong Kong,” Leung said. “Leaving has not taken away my sense of responsibility. Hong Kong is home forever.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Beh Lih Yi.