Hong Kong Journalists Association

Funding

To maintain its neutrality, HKJA is funded by membership fees and other fund-raising activities, such as annual dinners, seminars (for non-members), training courses etc.

Membership classifications

One may choose to join HKJA as a Full Member, Associate Member, Public Relations Member or Student Member.

JA Cup

The HKJA Cup was inaugurated in 1984. In the beginning, the idea for the journo' own league was put up by non-Chinese members of the Association. 11 teams participated in the inaugural championship held at the Kowloon Wah Yan College grounds. The winner was Wah Kiu Yat Pao, and runners-up were Jing Pao and TVB News Department. Awards were presented by then Director of Information Services, Cheung Man-yee. Football aficionados among journalists ran the games for the first twenty years as volunteers. Since 2007, the Association staff took over the tournament's official organisation. The Cup carries no cash prizes or anything material other than the trophy. Yet it remains a highlight of the Association, attracting generations of football enthusiasts to give of their best in the game as in their media work. As the tournament became more established, it received increasing support from the community, such as San Miguel, Puma, Cathay Pacific, China Light & Power, Bank of East Asia, etc. in 1980s and 1990s. Celebrities like tycoon Stanley Ho, Timothy Fok, President of the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, Brian Leung, President of Hong Kong Football Association also supported the games year after year. Some years Ho presided over final games and presented the Cup himself.^[1] The champions of the JA Cup are:

Latest judgment made by the Ethics Committee

The judgment was made on 16 October 2006. The complaint was about several journalists from a Hong Kong magazine "Easy Finder (Chinese: 壹本便利)" who took photos of a local female artist, Gillian Chung (Chinese: 鍾欣恫), in a dressing room using a hidden camera.

There were three main parts of the judgement:

1. HKJA received more than 20 complaints about the 761st issue of "Easy Finder" magazine, which was published on 23 August 2006. In the issue, the magazine published photos of Gillian Chung in a dressing room located in Malaysia.
2. According to the fifth article of the HKJA Code of Ethics, "A journalist shall obtain information, photographs and illustrations only by straightforward means. The use of other means can be justified only by over-riding considerations of the public interest. The journalist is entitled to exercise a personal conscientious objection to the use of such means."
3. HKJA concluded that publishing a photo of an artist who was undressing could not be justified as being in the public interest. Using a hidden camera to get the photos was a violation of individual privacy as well as HKJA Code of Ethics.

Latest news

Mary Lau, the wife of detained journalist Ching Cheong, issued her latest statement on her husband's case on 2 November 2006. She called for his immediate release.

HKJA held a press conference and also called for Ching Cheong's release.

Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)

Questions over Hong Kong's press freedom were raised when the government announced plans to set up a committee to review public broadcasting in January 2005. The greatest concern that arose from the establishment of the committee seemed to be the controversy over the editorial independence/freedom of Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK). The broadcaster is known for airing views and opinions that challenge the government's policies. Consequently, there were fears over whether RTHK's editorial freedom would remain. On the one hand, the government wanted to use RTHK as an outlet to disseminate its views. On the other, Hong Kong people want to be able to voice their concerns freely. The Hong Kong Journalists Association responded to the issue by saying that RTHK should maintain its freedom and remain independent from the government (for more on HKJA's response, see the HKJA Annual Report (2006)).

Article 23

Introduced as a law to protect national security, Article 23 of the Basic Law created much concern and debate over Hong Kong's right to freedom of speech. On the one hand, the government wanted to pass the bill to help the country and protect it from any threats, while on the other, individuals wanted to be able to express themselves freely. In a response to the issue, HKJA opposed the bill as it felt that Article 23 posed a threat to freedom of expression and was also unnecessary. Due to the dissatisfaction of the people, on 1 July 2003 approximately 500,000 people protested against Article 23. On 5 September later that year, the government announced that it had decided to withdraw the bill.