Political cartoonist Zunzi’s books have been withdrawn from Hong Kong’s public libraries, days after the Ming Pao newspaper announced it would end publication of the artist’s work, following criticism from authorities.
The Hong Kong Department of Leisure and Cultural Services has begun to remove works by Zunzi, the pseudonym of Wong Kei-kwan, from the shelves of the city’s libraries to determine if they violate national security law, according to the Efe agency.
On Thursday, Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper announced that it would stop publishing Wong Kei-kwan’s works.
“Ming Pao would like to express his gratitude to Zunzi for witnessing how times have changed with us over the past four decades,” the editorial office responsible for publishing the cartoonist’s work said.
Zunzi’s work caricatures the frustrations of Hong Kong society since the days when the city was controlled by the United Kingdom.
Several cartoons drawn by Wong have been criticized in recent months by different government departments, including Security.
More recently, the Youth and Internal Affairs office criticized the work for “blurring” the government’s role in nominating local committee members who will elect district council candidates later this year.
In Zunzi’s cartoon, a man tells a woman that even though some people have failed exams and suffer from health problems, they can be appointed to commissions, as long as “higher officials” see fit.
Under the government’s plan for district council reform, local committees, made up of many government supporters, will elect about 40% of the 470 seats.
Only 20% of seats – against around 90% – will be directly elected by the public, a figure below the level set during British colonial rule.
In a comment on the removal of the books, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said on Friday that the works should be examined to decide if they violate Hong Kong law, if they could have an adverse impact on the community or if they are “obscene”. and indecent”.
Lee stated that the Basic Law guarantees freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Hong Kong. [mini constituição do território]but said the government opposes “false, biased, misleading or defamatory messages.”
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s security chief Chris Tang praised the Ming Pao newspaper for taking responsibility and removing content that could be used to make false accusations against the authorities.
Beijing imposed a national security law on the Chinese administrative region in 2021, following mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.
The Apple Daily, a daily critical of Chinese power that had supported the anti-government movement, closed that summer after the newspaper’s funds were frozen and some of its executives were arrested on charges of violating national security law.
Hong Kong has fallen to 148th place in the 2022 world press freedom index of the international non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
In 2002, when the index was first published, the territory was ranked 18th and considered a haven for free expression in Asia.
Source: TSF
