HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s last colonial governor Chris Patten yesterday said a string of attacks on media workers was “profoundly serious,” with fears over an erosion of press freedom intensifying in the city.
Two senior figures from the Hong Kong Morning News Media Group were attacked on Wednesday weeks after Kevin Lau, a former editor of the liberal Ming Pao newspaper, was critically wounded in another assault.
“What’s happened has been profoundly serious,” Patten said and Ming Pao, without drawing a link between the attacks and perceived erosion of press freedoms.
“It’s not the first time that journalists have been attacked, it’s happened in the past as well,” Patten said, adding that Lau was a “distinguished crusading investigative editor and journalist.”
Lau was hacked with a cleaver in broad daylight last month by two men who escaped on a stolen motorbike. “(This) may have more to do with his courage and integrity as a journalist which would be deeply worrying,” he said.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association expressed “serious concern” for media workers in the city. afp
