The Correspondent, September/October 2015 by The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong

Contents

September/October 2015

COVER STORY Malaysia in crisis The mystery of Flight MH370, the downing of Flight MH17, the jailing of Anwar Ibrahim, sovereign wealth fund scandal, the handling of Rohingya migrants, and intolerance towards Christians are symptoms of a failing government that's lost its way, says Malaysian Opposition MP Wong Chen.

13 Malaysians march for free press over 1MDB reportage 14 The plane that wasn't MH370

AFP

Cover photo by AFP

Features

17 18 20

ON THE WALL Lee Fook Chee's Hong Kong Photographs from the recently published book, “Lee Fook Chee’s Hong Kong, Photographs from the 1950s”, were exhibited at the FCC during August.They represent a unique window into the Hong Kong of the 1950s.

Regulars

A message from the President

Editorial

Membership

Club News

MEDIA: FCC social media is up and running

Then and now: Zetland Street 1972-2015 by Bob Davis

F&B: Food across the world, from Germany to Argentina

Speakers: What they said...

Classifieds

Last Word: No war for this war correspondent

HONG KONG Legco walkout: no conspiracy just a cock-up When Hong Kong lawmakers rejected the government's electoral plan in June there were farcical scenes as proBeijing legislators walked out. HONG KONG Hong Kong still at the centre MEDIA Crowds to the rescue? In a media industry that struggles regularly with rising costs, declining revenues and retrenchments, it’s easy enough to see the appeal of the crowdfunding model. MEDIA New news kid on the block A brash, young English-language online newspaper is just out of the starting blocks in Hong Kong. While not short on ambition, does it have the stamina to give the established players a run for their money?

IN REVIEW Lee Fook Chee’s Hong Kong Almost five years ago Edward Stokes came across a collection of Hong Kong photographs that are a time capsule of the 1950s.

REPORTAGE Seventy years on: No story worth dying for? Accredited war correspondents in the Pacific War were wholly dependent on the US military for all their basic needs, and all their copy subjected to censorship. Many also lost their lives.

REPORTAGE The real scoop In the year of war anniversaries, it was 80 years ago Fascist Italy invaded Abyssinia. It was also the year of the biggest scoop of the time, writes Sarah Monks, whose father Noel was there.

From the President

Since 1982, FCC members have been been proud to call a 19thcentury ice house their home. As custodians, we have taken great care to restore and preserve the architectural beauty of the magnificent Grade 1-listed building, as well ensure it serves a valuable purpose. I’m delighted to say that the Club’s lease to the premises, which expires at the end of this year, has been recommended for renewal for a further seven years by our landlord, the Government Property Agency. The decision is a reflection of our solid record as tenants and custodians, an affirmation of the important role the media plays in Hong Kong, and as a vibrant hub for discussion of Chinese and international affairs and debate, exemplified most recently by the successful visit by Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. I would like to thank Gilbert Cheng, Chan Hoi-Lo and all our staff who handled the many important but unseen administrative tasks required to help secure the lease renewal. More hard work lies ahead.

THE CORRESPONDENT

We must embark upon a series of renovations and improvements over the next two years, such as modernising our overburdened kitchens, overhauling our sound system and refurbishing venues for members’ comfort. Thanks to the prudent financial stewardship of our recent treasurers, the Club has built reserves that will cover the cost of these capital works. They ain’t cheap, but they are necessary. We do, however, face continued pressure on our operational costs. A rent increase, rising wages and decreased revenue from new-member joining fees mean we have had to budget for a considerable loss this year, even with the 5% increase on F&B prices after an 18-month freeze on prices. While we made that move reluctantly, a stroll along Wyndham Street quickly reveals the exceptional value FCC members enjoy. Our monthly subscription fees have been kept the same for almost 20 years, over which time most clubs have significantly raised members’ dues. We have expended much effort maximizing

revenues, trimming costs and investing wisely to do so. Looking ahead, balancing the books will become much harder. That is why the Board is proposing a change to the criteria for silver membership at the September 22 extraordinary general meeting. Currently, members of 20 years standing who have reached the age 65 or above are relieved of monthly subs at the discretion of the board. With people happily living longer on average, the burden of lost revenue will increasingly fall on paying members to the tune of millions of dollars per annum within a few years. The proposed amendment is to change the qualifying criteria to 30 years, which is a reluctantly made but essential step toward ensuring the financial stability of the Club for its membership. Please do read the materials mailed to you and register your vote. The ultimate decision is yours. Neil Western President neil.western@gmail.com

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS’ CLUB, HONG KONG

2 Lower Albert Road, Central, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2521 1511 Fax: (852) 2868 4092 Email: fcc@fcchk.org Website: www.fcchk.org The Board of Governors 2015-2016 President Neil David Western First Vice President Tara Joseph Second Vice President Kevin Barry H. Egan Correspondent Governors Keith Bradsher, Florence De Changy, Nan-Hie In, Juliana Liu, Angie Lau, Natasha Khan, Carsten Schael, Nicholas Gentle Journalist Governors Clifford Buddle, James Gould Associate Governors Andy Chworowsky, Christopher Dillon, Timothy S. Huxley, Simon Pritchard Goodwill Ambassador Clare Hollingworth Club Secretary Simon Pritchard Professional Committee Co-Conveners: Tara Joseph, Keith Bradsher, Nan-Hie In Finance Committee Co-Conveners: Timothy S. Huxley (Treasurer), Florence De Changy Constitutional Committee Co-Conveners: Kevin Egan, Nicholas Gentle, Clifford Buddle Membership Committee Co-Conveners: Nan-Hie In, James Gould, Simon Pritchard House/ Food and Beverage Committee Co-Conveners: Andy Chworowsky (F&B) Juliana Liu (F&B) Nicholas Gentle (House) Carsten Schael (House) Tim Huxley (House) Press Freedom Committee Co-Conveners: Neil Western, Florence De Changy, Natasha Khan Communications Committee Co-Conveners: Angie Lau, Natasha Khan, Juliana Liu Paul Bayfield (Editor) Wall Committee Co-Conveners: Carsten Schael, James Gould FCC Charity Fund Committee Co-Conveners: Andy Chworowsky, Chris Dillon General Manager Gilbert Cheng Produced by: Asiapix Studios Tel: 9769 0294 Email: asiapix@netvigator.com www.terryduckham-asiapix.com Printing Lautus Print Tel: 2555 1178 Email: cs@lautus.com.hk Advertising Contact FCC Front Office: Tel: 2521 1511 The Correspondent ©2015 The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong The Correspondent is published six times a year. Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of the club.

Editorial The irony of former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad stepping into the middle of the corruption scandal surrounding Prime Minister Najib Razak and demanding he quit has been noted by many inside and outside the country. Mahathir's leadership legacy – cronyism, compromised judiciary, continuous legal attacks on Opposition MPs, restrictions on press freedom, periodic use of Islamic law to reinforce his leadership – is alive and well and has put Najib right in it. During Mahathir's “reign” he made sure that anyone of talent in his own party was disgraced – Anwar Ibrahim for one – or removed from power in one way or another. The result: arrogant and incompetent leaders who are losing control of the country. At least he was never caught with his hand in the till... In previous issues of The Correspondent we have explored the impact of social media as a tool of communication... and generally seen it as a good thing. It was also a good thing in the early days of the Syrian conflict, for example, when social media was the only way the news got out. In Malaysia it is being used to engender racial hatred and enforcing the more draconian aspects of the state religion... not a good thing. The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370 produced conspiracy theories by the dozen. One of these theories was the reported sighting of a mysterious plane in the Maldives. The unsubstantiated reports were picked up by news agencies and put out as fact. Florence De Changy, who had previously been based in Malaysia for three years, went there and uncovered the real story. Governments controlling how correspondents cover wars is not new. During the Second World War in the Pacific, writes Gavin Greenwood, the US authorities had almost total control over what was said. By the time of the Vietnam War correspondents had a freer hand with fewer controls and less censorship. However, the US authorities learned their lesson and by the time of the Gulf wars they were back in control. Social media, which has already changed the face of war reporting, will be a harder force to control in the future.

Paul Bayfield

THE CORRESPONDENT

MEMBERSHIP Who’s joined the Club, who’s leaving and who’s turned silver! This is the column to read. It’s also the column to read to find out about other membership stuff. For instance changing your membership category. If you joined the Club as a Correspondent but are now working in public relations you should change to Associate. Or as a Journalist now reporting for the Financial Times change to Correspondent. You could be an Associate who has changed career to become a full-time journalist so you should be a Correspondent or a Journalist member. To ensure the integrity of our membership categories we ask you to contact us if you get a new job that potentially alters your membership status. Need advice email Marilyn Hood marketing@fcchk.org. Leaving Hong Kong? The question of whether to take out Absent Membership will arise. It’s not expensive at HK$2,000 and it is for life! Correspondents and Journalists remember you may leave Hong Kong working in the profession but return working in the commercial sector, and it may take years to rejoin as an Associate.

Welcome to new members

Correspondents: Ramsey Al-Rikabi, Editor, Bloomberg; Brad Hodson, Producer, Bloomberg; Marisa Cannon, Assistant Editor, Panacea Publishing; Chiara Caratti di Valfrei, Photo Editor, Cosmopolitan Italy; Frederic Lelievre, Hong Kong/China Correspondent, Le Temps (Switzerland); Wayne Ma, Reporter, Dow Jones-Wall Street Journal; Laura Mannering, Bureau Chief for Hong Kong and Taipei, Agence France-Presse; Paul Mozur, Reporter, The New York Times; Yoko Shimizu, TV Assignment Editor, Bloomberg; Michael Wilkinson, Editor, Agence France-Presse Journalists: Tom Hilditch, Correspondent and Publisher, Fast Media Associates: Laura Acres, Senior Vice-President, Moody's Investors Service; Tobias Berger, Head of Arts, Central Police Station Revitalisation Project; Sonal Hattangdi-Haridas, Homeopathic Practitioner, Integrated Medicine Institute; Carmen Ho Kar-man, Director, All Thumbs-Up; Saloni Hora, Managing Director, Merton Global Ventures; Vishwanath Krishnamurthi, Managing Director, Star Line Traders; Ricky Long, Senior Director of Human Resources, Atmel Asia; Patrick Low Smith, Vice-President of Research, Fung Global Institute; William Mak Si-chiu, Director, Paragon Properties; Mona Shah, Director, Mona Shroff Jewellery; Trevor Smith, Founder, The Orchard Partnership; Raymond Warhola, Executive Director, Asia Pacific, China Daily Asia Pacific Replacements – Corporate: Christopher Argent, Regional Director Government Affairs & Corporate Communications, Philip Morris Asia; Catherine Chan Ka-man, Executive Director, UBS; Philippe Dirckx, Managing Director, SWIFT; Prakash Muthukrishnan, Head of Communications & Marketing, ABN AMRO Bank; Gary Philip, Group Programme Director, HSBC; Wong Chun-leung, Research Manager, The Dui Hua Foundation

On to pastures new

Au revoir to those members leaving Hong Kong who have become Absent Members: Correspondents: Ellen Sheng Gia-bin, Freelance; Zhu Qiu, Hong Kong Bureau Chief, Thomson Reuters Journalists: Kenneth Hodgart, Sub Editor, South China Morning Post; Charles Lanyon, Reporter, South China Morning Post Associates: William Barrar, Head of Consulting, Ericsson; Carr Cranmer, Flight Operations, Hong Kong Dragon Airlines; Susan Field, Managing Director, Cohn & Wolfe Impact Asia; Andrew Haskins, Head of Research, Sabbatical; Gary Morrison, Assistant Director, Yew Chung Education Foundation; Johann-Friedrich Von Hindenburg, Head of Communications East Asia Pacific, International Finance Corp

Farewell also to:

Correspondent: Jennifer Mattson, Freelance Journalist: Suzanne Sataline, Editor, SCMP Associates: Lawrence Gray Also resigning Correspondents: Saikat Chatterjee, Asia Bonds Correspondent, Thomson Reuters; Alex Millson, Correspondent, Agence France-Presse Associates: Winky Po Wing-kay, Barrister, Michael Van Smith, Advisor, The Henley Group; Anthony Williams, General Manager, Shun Tak Holdings Diplomatic: Mark Lewis, Consul, Consulate General of the United States; Christopher Pearl, Vice Consul, British Consulate-General Hong Kong Corporate: Patrick Mak Si-cheuk, CEO, Mak Shui Cho & Son; William Mak Si-chiu, Director, Mak Shui Cho & Son

Welcome back to

Associates: Ruth Hunt; Christopher White, Managing Director, Winkle-Picker Attaining Silver membership Associates: Rodney Cheng, Director, Teamrite & IMS; Kate Kelly, Managing Director, K2PR

Despatched

We are extremely sad to announce the deaths of Correspondents: William Measor, Freelance Writer; Henry Parwani, Retired Associate: James Bertram, Consultant & Notary Public, Deacons Honorary membership granted to widows: Chun Siu (Measor); Christine Bertram

THE CORRESPONDENT

Illustration by Harry Harrison

CLUB NEWS

Appropriate dress if you please! The Club generally relies on the good sense and discretion of members to dress appropriately given the venue or event, day of the week and time of day. Dining Room and Verandah: Smart casual. A shirt with a collar is

expected; wearing shorts and beach shoes is not considered acceptable.

Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.

Chinese Restaurant: Casual-to-smart, but shorts and beach footwear is considered unacceptable.

Main Bar/Lounge: Casual, which means wearing shorts, a T-shirt or beach footwear is allowed.

Bert's: Casual-to-smart Monday to Friday (wearing shorts and beach footwear is unacceptable), and casual on

All Venues: Wearing a singlet is considered unacceptable in any of the above locations.

THE CORRESPONDENT

CLUB NEWS

FCC on the move for human rights

Crackdown on human rights lawyers in China The FCC is gravely concerned at the Chinese government’s Call for Gao Yu to get urgent continuing crackdown on human medical care. rights lawyers, legal workers The FCC has called for the and civil society activists, an FCC immediate release from prison of statement said on July 17. mainland journalist Gao Yu so that At least 205 lawyers, law firm she can receive urgent medical staff and human rights activists The Edge banned in Malaysia care. “We are deeply distressed have been detained, questioned The FCC and the Foreign by reports of her deteriorating or had their freedom of movement Correspondents' Club of Japan health,” the FCC statement said. temporarily restricted since the have jointly expressed grave Gao was convicted in April this crackdown began on July 9, concern about the Malaysian year of leaking state secrets to according to the China Human Home Ministry's suspension of the the foreign media. The FCC at the Rights Lawyers Concern Group. publishing permits of The Edge time issued a statement to express Among those reportedly in Weekly and The Edge Financial its grave concern to the Chinese detention is Zhou Shifeng of the Daily, and see it as an assault on authorities at the conviction of Beijing Fengrui Law Firm. Zhou press freedom. the 71-year-old was taken away Gao whose sevenby police after year jail sentence attempting to meet is “unwarranted his client, former Die and particularly Zeit news assistant harsh for an elderly Zhang Miao, who woman who is had herself just been already in frail released after nine health”. months in custody. Gao's health Zhang was detained had worsened last year after steadily since her attending an event incarceration and in Beijing in support her condition is now of the Occupy reportedly lifeMovement in Hong threatening. The FCC Screen grab taken on January 16, 2014 of Die Zeit’s online coverage of Zhang Kong. urges the authorities Miao’s imprisonment. “Freedom of to urgently and speech and of the unconditionally press can only be guaranteed The suspension is linked to the assure that Gao receives medical when there is the clear and publications' coverage of the attention. unfettered rule of law.” the scandal surrounding the country's The FCC is particularly statement said. “By attacking sovereign wealth fund, 1Malaysia concerned at reports that the Development Berhad, which missed lawyers who are dedicated authorities would agree to release a debt repayment deadline. to defending civil liberties, the Gao only if she once again Chinese authorities are clearly “We call on the authorities publicly confesses her guilt on TV, undermining the rule of law and to immediately reverse the something she has refused to do. sending a very chilling message decision and allow the journalists Gao, who was a guest speaker to both journalists and lawyers to continue their work without at the Human Rights Press working in China.” censorship, intimidation or Awards hosted by the FCC in The FCC expressed its strong interruption,” the statement said. 2002, was arrested last April as support for and solidarity with the The following organisations authorities rounded up dozens of legal community in China and calls also support the statement: Asia rights activists and dissidents for on the authorities to immediately Pacific Association of Press Clubs, questioning ahead of the 25th halt their suppression of human Melbourne Press Club, National anniversary of the Tiananmen rights lawyers, and allow them Press Club of Mongolia, National Square crackdown on June 4, to continue with their work in Press Club of Australia, and the 1989. protecting the civil liberties of all FCCs in Malaysia, Taiwan and She has been jailed before: Chinese citizens. China.

THE CORRESPONDENT

toward the end of the Tiananmen protests in 1989 and again in 1994 for “illegally providing state secrets to institutions outside China's borders” in connection with four articles she wrote in the Hong Kong-based magazine Mirror Monthly.

CLUB NEWS

Walter's birthday

Golf tradition continues

From left, Jeremy Bolland, Connie Bolland, Sabrina Wong and Russ Julseth.

Terry Duckham/Asiapix Studios

The FCC Golf Society is dedicated to getting out and playing a round of golf every month with a group of people who enjoy the game, friendly competition and some social entertainment. We play most often at the three public courses in Kau Sai Chau the third Friday of every month. The Zhuhai courses in China and the Macau Golf and Country Club provide some added variety to the mix. You donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to be an obsessive golfer to join. Currently we have 60 members with handicaps ranging from 12 to 40. Generally, we have 12 to 25 golfers for each event. We kicked off our 2015 schedule in January and February on the North course at Kau Sai Chau, Hong Kongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier public course. We followed this with a trip to Macau Golf and Country Club for an annual competition and dinner at the Miramar restaurant. This is an annual, not to be missed event of golf, Guinness and gluttony. We followed this with events at Kau Sai Chau in April May and June. Next events: September 18 at KSC for a social day of golf and then a competition with the Hong Kong Seniors Golf Society on October 19 at the same venue. After each event we return back to the 19th hole, and celebrate the golf round with lunch, prizes and good cheer. For further information contact Russ Julseth at russjulseth@ netvigator.com

Supplied by Russ Julseth

FCC staf

The typhoon that wasn't couldn't put a damper on Walter Kent's birthday celebrations on July 7. Walter is pictured with friends and staff members as he is about to cut the cake.

Helmut Sohmen (left), dropped by the Club last month. The retired shipping magnate and former Dragon Air boss is pictured here with Helmuth Hennig and FCC Board member, Carsten Schael.

General Meeting to ratify Articles' amendments Vote on the amendment to the FCC's Articles of Association at a General Meeting on Tuesday September 22 at 6pm. Members can vote by postal ballot, attending the meeting or by an approved proxy. Proxy forms can be obtained from the front office.

THE CORRESPONDENT

Photos supplied by Lynne Grebstad

CLUB NEWS

Time Travel Club member Lynne Grebstad, with her sister, Andrea, and father, Peter Buckby, in photos taken as children at Kyrenia, Cyprus, in 1962 and again recently during a family visit this year.

It's official: journalists at war can look after themselves The US Defense Department, in a manual about its interpretation of the law of war, sees few situations where journalists covering war should have special protection. They would be okay if they did as they are told and, by the way, should expect their stories to be censored by the ruling authorities. This is contrary to the FCC's stated policies as well as the opinions of two FCC lunch speakers who earlier this year warned of the increased danger for journalists at war. Charles Sennott, who founded online news organisation GlobalPost in 2009, urged news organisations and governments to work to ensure the safety of journalists in war zones. He introduced a “Call for global safety, principles and practice” statement – particularly for international freelancers and local correspondents. “It basically establishes a set of standards so that we can create a baseline of safety for 8

THE CORRESPONDENT

correspondents in the field. It's not meant to be the final document of safety standards, it's more a shared set of principles for a shared culture of safety.” In the same week that Sennott spoke, AP president and CEO Gary Pruitt, also at an FCC lunch, said journalists at war face greater risks than ever before as extremist groups no longer need the media to get their story out as they can use social media to speak directly to the world. “Frontline journalists gathering and reporting the news face increasing risks and international law should be changed to make it a war crime to kill or kidnap journalists,” he said. More than 1,000 journalists have been killed since 1992 and last year alone 61 journalists were killed reporting the news, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. These statistics appear not to be relevant to the US Defense Department, which, in the manual that it has just released, offered guidelines on the treatment of journalists covering armed conflicts that would make their work more dangerous, cumbersome and subject to censorship, the New York Times reported.

Journalists, the manual says, are generally regarded as civilians, but may in some instances be deemed “unprivileged belligerents,” a legal term that applies to fighters that are afforded fewer protections than the declared combatants in a war. In some instances, the document says, “the relaying of information (such as providing information of immediate use in combat operations) could constitute taking a direct part in hostilities”. The manual warns that, “Reporting on military operations can be very similar to collecting intelligence or even spying,” so it calls on journalists to “act openly and with the permission of relevant authorities.” It says that governments “may need to censor journalists’ work or take other security measures so that journalists do not reveal sensitive information to the enemy.” Allowing this document to stand as guidance for commanders, government lawyers and officials of other nations would do severe damage to press freedom, the NYT said. Authoritarian leaders around the world could point to it to show that their despotic treatment of journalists is broadly in line with the standards set by the US government.

CLUB NEWS

Book sale of the century...or so

CARSTENSCHAEL.COM

In possibly the most eclectic book sale ever at the end of July, a selection of books from the library of the remarkable Arthur Hacker MBE (1932-2013) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; artist, historian, cartoonist and creator of Lap Sap Chung â&#x20AC;&#x201C; were up for grabs. There were literally thousands of unusual books about China, Hong Kong, Macau, Asia and the UK with topics like history, culture, heraldry, humour, design, poetry, coffee table books and novels. And the prices were reasonable too: HK$10 for paperbacks and HK$20 for hardbacks.

Harry Harrison

THE CORRESPONDENT

COVER STORY

Malaysia in crisis

Protesters march towards Malaysia's landmark Petronas Twin Towers during a May Day protest against GST (goods and services tax) in Kuala Lumpur on May 1, 2015.

The mystery of Flight MH370, the downing of Flight MH17, the jailing of Anwar Ibrahim, the sovereign wealth fund scandal, the handling of Rohingya migrants, and intolerance towards Christians are symptoms of a failing government that's lost its way, says Malaysian Opposition MP Wong Chen.

n Malaysia “you have the freedom to speak; but you may not have freedom after speaking, so I will try not to get sued or put in jail for sedition for what I say,” Wong prefaced his remarks at a sold-out FCC lunch in July. In the weeks since his speech wreckage from MH370 was found on La Reunion but how it got there remains a mysteryand the Prime Minister Najib Razak is under increasing pressure from his own party to step aside. The tempo to have Najib step down was ratcheted up when at the end of August thousands took to the streets in a rally organised by pro-democracy coalition Bersih. Even former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad turned up at the rally, saying Najib needed to be “removed”. “International news in the past two years began with the tragedy of MH370 which has produced a massive amount of conspiracy theories,” Wong said. “Subsequently we had the MH17 tragedy in the Ukraine; then the Rohingya boat people crisis; and then surprisingly we found some 200 graves so that we now know the slave trade is alive and well. According to the government’s own documents and reports, it’s been around for at least five years. Then there was the crazy story of the naked tourists causing an earthquake in Sabah.” The perception by international news that the country is facing a lot of bad luck and sometimes fallout from some action or other by the authorities, 10

THE CORRESPONDENT

Wong said, gives a very negative picture of the Malaysian government – it shows there is a disconnect between Malaysia and the outside world. “For me as a member of parliament and a member of the People’s Justice Party, of which Anwar Ibrahim is our leader, the big news is the jailing of Anwar this year;” he said. “We all know he is now 67 years old, and even though he has a history of back pain, he was made to sleep on the floor for three weeks. “The Malaysian judiciary – fiercely independent as you all know – in their wisdom believe that a 67-year-old man could rape a six feet tall, 24-yearold Malay boy.” Wong sat through the 16 days of two trials and every day came out feeling “there was no hope” for the Malaysian judiciary. Anwar now gets to see his family every three weeks from behind a glass barrier, while his party gets to connect with him when he is either suing the government or the government is suing him. While Anwar being in jail is a major setback, there was another setback for the Opposition recently when the Coalition Against the Government alliance was dissolved.

COVER STORY

AFP

Protesters wear masks as they march towards Malaysia's landmark Petronas Twin Towers during a May Day protest against GST (goods and services tax) in Kuala Lumpur. AFP

THE CORRESPONDENT

COVER STORY

Photos by AFP

the word “Allah” for god. So they seized a few Christian bibles written in Malay “for fear that if a Malay read this bible and they see ‘Allah’ they may suddenly give up their faith in Islam and convert to Christianity. Now this is an official government position and illustrates just how insecure or backward-thinking the government is in this matter.”

“You would think that this would give a boost to the government, but it is facing its own internal crisis over the 1MBD scandal and the Prime Minister’s alleged bank account. “The crisis stems from Dr Mahathir fighting with the Prime Minister over accountability and transparency. This is very ironic as everyone knows that it was Mahathir – after being leader for 22 years – who created this style of politics and handed it over to Najib.” Wong said that absence of the statesmanship needed to weather all these problems and to move forward has led to a lot of rather messy politicking instead. “Government backbenchers, for example, are plotting, but every other week the pendulum swings from anti-Najib to pro-Najib and this will continue for a while yet as the 1MDB and the alleged bank account scandals are not going away,” he said. “Also you would have seen that the deputy prime minister has issued a statement seeking greater transparency. Now, publicly stating your position in Malaysian politics is a no-no. Nobody ever dares speak against the prime minister.” A year ago the Islamic authorities – read the government – deemed that non-Muslims cannot use 12

THE CORRESPONDENT

Social media politics At the recent South-East Asian Games a Malaysian gymnast won a gold medal, but instead of being congratulated, she was scolded for not dressing appropriately through a social media campaign. “So on one hand we see the Malaysian government losing the plot. On the other, we are starting to see the Malaysian community through social media expressing a high level of intolerance,” Wong said. “That to me – as a politician – is really worrying.” Before Wong took up his seat in parliament in 2009 he and his wife talked about what do about their family if/when he was arrested. Apparently this type of discussion goes on throughout Malaysian politics and it’s not unusual for politicians to have a Plan B. “When you have an authoritarian government you know the risk and you do it because you love your country,” he said. “But when the people start to go against you and they start to think with high levels of intolerance – whether it’s Malays pushing for their entitlements or Chinese who take a racist attitude – it shows that the country seems to be divided on many issues and this is a real challenge being an MP. “Fighting a government that controls the media or that has elections that are not free or fair is business as usual for us, but dealing with people who have started to express strange views about Islam or what a multicultural society should be is something else again.” The news you get is reflective of what’s happening in Malaysia, Wong said. And the “pure news” is that the government has lost its moral compass which is now influencing the community to react in an erratic manner where intolerance, disunity and disharmony are the norm via the powerful tool of social media. “And the government has done little to stop this, despite the rhetoric that we are a multicultural country,” he said. Wong noted that many of the reporters who had covered the disappearance of MH370 were at the lunch. “You – and the families of the victims – must be frustrated with how you were treated by the vacillating authorities,” he said. “However, in Malaysia these displays of arrogant incompetence are just another day in the life of most Malaysians.”

COVER STORY

Malaysians march for free press over 1MDB reportage By Max Kolbe

alaysia has lurched from one crisis to the next. Downed airlines, financial scandals and religious tensions have persistently challenged Prime Minister Najib Razak whose handling of these affairs has been a constant source of friction with the independent press amid calls for his resignation. That came to a head when the Malaysian Home Ministry suspended two newspapers – The Edge Financial Daily and The Edge Weekly – for three months. A third sister publication, and group international flagship, The Edge Review closed its doors with no reason given. Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi also warned he would act without warning against media organisations that “spun” news amid the controversy surrounding 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Hundreds of protestors – dressed in black and blue to signify the bruising the media has taken in Malaysia – marched through the streets of the capital in early August led by Fathi Aris Omar, the editor of Malaysiakini, chanting “Jangan takut lapor 1MDB” which means “Don’t be afraid to report on 1MDB”. The two Edge newspapers were suspended from July 24 because of their reports about the fund 1MDB, which the ministry said were “prejudicial or likely prejudicial to public order, security or likely to alarm public opinion or is likely to be prejudicial to public and national interest”. It was bureaucratic management-speak which did not sit well with supporters of the publications. “The Edge has enlightened the public. Immediately lift the suspension so that democracy can be restored,” Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, secretary of the New Hope Movement, told journalists. Najib and 1MDB have strenuously denied allegations that around US$700 million was channelled into two of the prime minister’s AmBank accounts, and that the largest tranche of US$681 million was reportedly transferred ahead of the May 2013 general election. The reports have led to increased calls for Najib’s resignation, with former leader Mahathir Mohamad leading the chorus. Cash-strapped 1MDB also owes more than US$11 billion to creditors. Additionally the ministry blocked the online Sarawak Report, which has documented Malaysian

corruption and been widely praised for its work on the likes of Taib Mahmud, the former chief minister of Sarawak, who retired after 33 years in the job with a family fortune estimated at US$20 billion. Sarawak Report had also tied with the Wall Street Journal in breaking the story about the bank accounts under Najib’s name with transfers from 1MDB, which the prime minister had established to promote his country’s growth. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said its reasoning behind its block on the Sarawak Report was “based on complaints received from the public” over the publishing of misinformation about the 1MDB issue. The Minister for Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government, Abdul Rahman Dahlan, chipped in with: “The government suspended The Edge publications because there was a real possibility that the contents of their reporting were not authentic. “If this possibility turns out to be true then the impact on the government and the economic stability due to irresponsible reporting cannot be understated.” In March, Edge publisher Ho Kay Tat and The Malaysian Insider chief executive Jahabar Sadiq were arrested and charged under the Sedition Act for their coverage of Islamic criminal laws or hudud. The Edge Media Group is also challenging the latest suspensions through a judicial review which the Malaysian High Court has allowed while rejecting a stay on the three-month suspension. Foreign press clubs, including the FCCHK, were quick to issue statements in support of Edge saying they were dismayed by the suspensions and censorship imposed by Najib’s government. They included: The Asia Pacific Association of Press Clubs, The Melbourne Press Club, National Press Club of Mongolia, The National Press Club of Australia, The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Malaysia and The Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club. “The suspension linked to the publications’ coverage of the 1MDB scandal and taking effect today, is an assault on press freedom. We call on the continued on page 34 THE CORRESPONDENT

COVER STORY

Florence De Changy

The plane that wasn't MH370

Zuhuriyya Ali, a 50-year-old housewife, saw “a big plane making a lot of noise" flying over her house.

hile the mystery behind the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the early hours of March 8 2014 has now been partly solved with the pieces of wreckage found on La Reunion, there had been persistent claims that a large, lowflying plane had been seen over a remote Maldives island. The sightings of the aircraft raised hopes that it could have been the missing flight carrying 239 passengers. Florence De Changy, correspondent for Le Monde and Radio France International, recently went to the island and found the claims – which had been prematurely validated by several international media – were not true. Kuda Huvadhoo would be hard to find by accident. The tiny island is located in the central part of the Maldives archipelago, at the southern tip of Dhaalu Atoll, just north of the equator. Though it is part of the fabled Maldives, it is not on the luxury tourist map. It claims five mosques and four private cars. Its population suddenly swelled to 3,500 when it had to accommodate the survivors from two neighbouring islands destroyed by the great tsunami

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of December 2004. Days here follow the rhythm of calls to prayer, while the weeks are punctuated by the arrival, every Wednesday morning, of the cargo ferry from the Maldivian capital Malé, delivering passengers, chickens, mopeds, sacks of rice or onions and the occasional bonus of a fridge or a fan. Every Saturday, the same ferry returns to Malé. But in the early hours of Saturday March 8 2014, a sighting in the sky over Kuda Huvadhoo caused the village to attract world attention again. Coinciding with the night on which MH370 disappeared from the radar 40 minutes into its route, from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, a number of islanders claimed to have seen an unidentified plane passing overhead. “A large plane, flying low and making a lot of noise,” said one islander witness. Could it have been MH370? If so, that would give the biggest clue to date of the final whereabouts of the doomed plane. At first sight, the flight time from Kuala Lumpur appeared to be compatible with this theory – assuming that the aircraft had turned due west after its last contact with air traffic control, already 40 minutes on its course towards Beijing.

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Since it was scheduled to land in China at 6.30am, which was roughly the same time as the “sighting” over the Maldives, this assumption garnered support. Similar distance travelled, right timing. It all seemed to fit… but not quite. Malaysia was quick to reject the islanders’ eyewitness accounts. Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters at a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on March 19 that the reports were “not true”, without any further discussion. Besides, the trajectory over the Maldives was incompatible with the official account of the disappearance, according to which the aircraft had very suspiciously changed direction 40 minutes into the flight and later had flown due south until it ran out of fuel, ultimately crashing down at 8.19am somewhere in the Indian Ocean not far from Perth. However, as a climate of distrust had set in between the families of the victims and the authorities, Malaysia’s denial had the opposite effect: it gave credence to the notion that the flight that had famously disappeared with 239 people on board might have in fact flown over the atoll. Since then, the French weekly magazine Paris Match and Australian daily The Australian sent reporters to investigate these claims. Both seemed to concur in confirming that the “large plane” spotted could have been MH370. The Australian report, published 13 months later, on April 4, was widely circulated. It rekindled the controversy and hope along with it. If it was MH370 that was spotted on that morning, then the aircraft could not have come down more than 4,000km away, where hugely expensive submarine search operations, led by Australia, were still going on. Almost all of the

60,000 square km of seabed – initially identified as the “priority” search area for the aircraft – had been mapped. Having drawn a blank, the search area was doubled in size last April. Zuhuriyya Ali, a 50-year-old housewife, greets us in the inner courtyard of her breeze-block home with a glass of rose-flavoured milk and a bowl of fresh mangoes. We asked what she saw on that morning of March 8 2014. “A big plane making a lot of noise”, “coming from the same direction as usual, but much lower,” she said. She points to a section of her zinc roof and draws an arc in the sky. Zuhuriyya Ali remembers the time well, 6.15am, give or take a few minutes because at 5am it is prayer time, and from 6am onwards she comes home and sweeps her courtyard. That same morning, Humaam Dhonmonik, a 16-year-old schoolboy, was getting ready for his Saturday class which starts at 7am. He saw the aircraft pass overhead through a gap between two tall trees. Using the compass on a mobile phone to point to where the aircraft came from, the same direction as indicated by Zuhuriyya Ali. We pointed out that if the plane came from Malaysia it should have been coming from the opposite direction. Humaam is troubled when he checks the location of Malaysia on his Google Maps app, but does say there was blue and red on the cockpit, but “no [Malaysia Airlines] logo” that he can remember seeing. Abdu Rasheed Ibrahim, a 46-year-old handyman at the magistrates’ court, was fishing when he heard the aircraft. He said there was a strong wind blowing – unusual on the equator – and he didn’t really see the plane until it was directly above him. When the aircraft banked, he saw distinctly “some red under the portholes, some red around the door”.

Florence De Changy

The remote Maldives island of Kuda Huvadhoo: eyewitness accounts of a low-flying plane were discounted on investigation. However, earlier press reports took the sightings as fact. THE CORRESPONDENT

REPORTAGE

Hussain Shakir, vice-president of the island council, was puzzled. “There is something behind all this. People have clearly seen something. But if the aircraft had come down in our waters, we would have found bits of wreckage,” he says. “We have a lot of dhonys [fishing boats] out there. They have phones, even if they’re a long way away, they can notify us if something happens.” The fuel issue The Maldivian civil aviation authority chairman Ibrahim Faizal is annoyed by the whole affair and would like to get to the bottom of it. Once Malaysia came asking for details about this plane, the investigation was placed in the hands of the Maldives defence forces and police. The first eyewitness accounts were initially published

He was much more sure of his ground when talking about the fire extinguisher found a few days later on the island of Baarah, to the north of the Maldivian archipelago. Initially some reports said it was from a Boeing, but Rasheed disagreed, saying “a boat would be more likely”. He said that according to his local experts, none of the serial numbers on the item matched parts used by Boeing. At the end of the day, the eyewitnesses on Kuda Huvadhoo are in agreement about two key things: the direction of the aircraft and the time at which they saw it: around 6.15am local time or 9.15am Beijing time. Having taken off from Kuala Lumpur at 0.41am, with a scheduled arrival time of 6.30am in Beijing, the aircraft, which had 49.1 tonnes of fuel at departure, could have kept on flying until 8am, or 8.30am at the latest, but not, under any circumstances, until 9.15am. By that time, it would simply have run out of fuel.

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Probably a domestic flight So what did the islanders actually see? Maybe nothing that special, according to teacher Adam Saeed. “I was playing ball with my 3-year-old son outside, when he pointed to the sky and shouted: ‘Daddy! plane! plane!’ My first thought was that it was a plane coming in to land at the next atoll’s airport. I was just annoyed that it was flying so low and disturbing us all on a Saturday morning.” According to the civil aviation authority’s official A Malaysian expert (centre) looks for debris from the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on a record of flights across the beach in Saint-Andre de la Reunion, on the French Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. zone, there was a domestic in the local newspaper Haveeru 10 days after the flight number DQA149 on March 8 2014, that event. “They were very insistent but we did not really landed at 6.33am at Thimarafushi airport, on the believe them,” remembers Shan Anees, a reporter neighbouring Thaa Atoll. The aircraft, which is with Haveeru. Still a story was published and then considered notoriously noisy, could have made an picked up by some international news agencies. At unusual approach due to the pilot’s unfamiliarity with that point, there was still a genuine hope of finding the route, according to several pilots we consulted. MH370. Since Thimarafushi airport has no control tower, Although the police rushed in investigators to and the radar systems in the capital are not powerful question the witnesses, no report was made public enough to cover this zone, no one noticed this despite requests from the civil aviation authority. All anomaly, except for a few Kuda Huvadhoo islanders. a police spokesman would say was that the witness “In all probability, the plane that the islanders statements were “highly inconsistent”. saw was this domestic flight. There’s nothing to Captain Ibrahim Rasheed, head of Maldivian civil convince us that it could have been MH370; neither aviation operations, initially thought it could have the route nor the timing support that theory,” said been one of the many flights between the Middle civil aviation head Ibrahim Faizal. However, despite East and Australia, but as they fly at between 31,000 the inconsistencies, many families of the missing to 33,000 feet over the Maldives this was unlikely. passengers clung to this improbable scenario. 16

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Legco walkout: no conspiracy just a cock-up When Hong Kong lawmakers rejected the government's electoral plan in June there were farcical scenes as pro-Beijing legislators walked out, writes veteran Hong Kong political reporter Francis Moriarty.

REUTERS/Bobby Yip

hen most – but not all – of the progovernment lawmakers walked out of the Legislative Council chamber on June 18, moments before the crucial vote on the government’s political plan, reporters scrambled to their online thesauruses seeking variations on the term “screw-up” – bungle, botch, blunder, gaffe, boner and foul-up (along with its impolite sibling) were among the favourites. But to describe this tacticturned-travesty, maybe the most accurate descriptor of all was “farce” – a ludicrously disorganised state of affairs that’s become a joke. So improbable was the manoeuvre, and so inept its execution, that conspiracies seeking to explain the inexplicable were circulating on the web even as those responsible, looking like chastened pupils bending over the principal’s knee, were bowing apologetically to the public for being boneheaded and amateurish – never a good combination, even if increasingly common across the political spectrum. But no point looking for conspiracy when cock-up will suffice. This event was so out of the ordinary that no one could have seen it coming, apparently including some of those who were supposed to take part. Every conspiracy that’s been put forward as a possible explanation falls short, or else is so convoluted that a group of legislators resembling “the gang that couldn’t shoot straight” could never be expected to pull it off. Not even with the help of the president, Jasper

Pro-democracy lawmakers chant slogans after voting at Legislative Council in Hong Kong, China June 18, 2015.

Tsang Yok-sing, who stepped out of his traditionally neutral role and engaged in an exchange of prewalkout text messages with fellow pro-government colleagues. Did they expect this to go unremarked? After all, when you’re staring at your smartphones and typing away in full view of the press and photographers, isn’t somebody bound to notice? The messages being shared, in both English and Cantonese and quickly leaked to the press, read like the kind of notes that used to be passed under the desks during student government meetings. This is not what the public expects of representatives who at HK$2.5 million a year to run their offices are well paid. But it’s what they got. To be candid, the debacle almost caught me out. THE CORRESPONDENT

HONG KONG

Hong Kong still at the centre

our years ago GE vice-chairman John Rice opened GE's Global Growth headquarters in Hong Kong, for its location in Asia, proximity to China – the world's second-biggest economy and soon to be the first – a reputation for global commerce, and the relative ease of doing business. “We chose Hong Kong for these reasons as well as there are less restrictions here compared with many other places,” he said he said at an FCC lunch in August.. It was also part of a corporate strategy that moved senior staff out of the US and into countries where there was growth or the potential for growth. “In the 21st century in a company like ours it is less and less about the physical headquarters location and more about where you have the decision makers located. Increasingly they are not going to be in headquarters; they are going to be in markets, in cities and in front of customers.” For Rice, it’s a welcome move back to Asia. He lived in Singapore in the mid-90s when he led GE’s Asia Pacific plastics division, before heading back to the US as president and CEO of GE’s transportation systems business. “I’m pleased to be back in this part of the world. Hong Kong is a very global city that is easy to navigate and live in.” In Rice's time at GE there has been a big shift in how it does business. “In 1978 we were a fly-in-fly-out type of company in about 30 or 40 countries with 80% of our business in the States. Now 65% of our business is outside the States in 170 countries”. Also GE over the past 10-15 years has been reconstituting its portfolio: moving about US$50bn-60bn of capital out of businesses that weren't directly related to infrastructure, and putting US$80bn-90bn of capital into infrastructure and hi-tech. “We did that because we looked around the world and saw more than 1.5 billion people who lack the basics – electricity, clean water, basic healthcare – or anything at all,” Rice said. “And we also see a world where that has to change over the next decades and it's why we are in technology and infrastructure that will address these issues.”

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There was widespread supposition that the debate would continue till the following morning, giving both pro- and anti-government protesters a chance to show up outside the building and vent. But given the rising temperatures on both sides of the issue, this was not an entirely risk-free proposition. Given the possibility of a violent clash, there was the alternative possibility that the speeches would go on into the afternoon and one side or the other would call it a day. That would trigger a vote before the expected crowds had shown up. I was counting on the latter – hoping, really, because I had a meeting that morning at Chinese University. Also, a colleague from The Economist was in town and we were working together on a piece for a newspaper. I had told him, confidently, that there should be no problem if he went ahead and arranged a lunch interview. My meeting ended early and something told me to head back into town. The train was approaching Admiralty when I got a Whatsapp message saying “debate just ended!” I immediately texted my colleague, who was eating nearby. The debate message was followed quickly by a breathless “WALKOUT BY PROGOVERNMENT LEGISLATORS!!!” I was in something resembling a fast trot to the Legco building when another text landed: “Vote is 28 against, 8 in favour.” It made no sense – how could that possibly be? I got to the reporters’ area in time to find myself at the back of a large scrum surrounding someone whom I could not see or hear. A cameraman told me it was Jeffrey Lam and he was apologising. There was complete mayhem and disbelief. Labour Party legislator Lee Cheuk-yan ambled over to our table and I asked what had happened. He explained the walkout and how his own party colleague, Cyd Ho, had nearly spoiled what was happening by rising to ask for a quorum call until he and others told her to sit back down. Without the quorum call, the voting proceeded. Lee Cheuk-yan leaned over and said, “History is made up of many mistakes, and history is on our side.” Then he leaned closer with a big grin and added, “Please don’t be surprised to hear me say the same thing in a few minutes when I walk outside.” Walkouts are not new to Legco. I recall two from the same year – 1999. One was when the Democratic Party staged a walkout in protest against the government’s introduction of legislation to abolish the Municipal Councils, as the Regional and Urban councils were then known. These were elected bodies that had their

HONG KONG

REUTERS/Bobby Yip

own resources and funded local projects involving sanitation, public health, arts and recreation. The Democrats stood up and walked out when the then Constitutional Affairs Secretary, Michael Suen, rose to present the government’s case for the Provision of Municipal Services (Reorganisation) Bill. The abolition came over considerable public opposition. It also followed on the controversial decision to add appointed seats to the District Boards, the bodies where Hong Kong’s laborious and stunted path toward democracy had first begun.

Pro-democracy lawmaker and IT advocate Charles Mok is surrounded by veto signs during his speech at the Legislative Council meeting.

The other walkout that stands out in my memory occurred in March of that year, when then legislator Margaret Ng tabled a motion of no-confidence in the Secretary for Justice, Elsie Leung. Leung had created controversy over a number of issues. But it was her decision not to prosecute Sally Aw Sian, chairman of the Sing Tao Group and publisher of the Hongkong Standard, after an ICAC corruption investigation involving inflated circulation figures that triggered widespread calls for her resignation. Leung had defended her decision as being in the “public interest” – which, under considerable pressure, she eventually defined as the possible loss of jobs if the paper went under. The controversy raised significant issues regarding the rule of law and a free press. The government put on a full-court press conference to defend the secretary against the noconfidence motion. And this is where the Liberal Party comes in – yes, the same Liberal Party with

the same chairman, James Tien, that remained in the chamber during the recent universal suffrage debate was also involved in the Elsie Leung debate. The Liberal Party said Leung had mishandled the affair, and had mistakenly interpreted the public interest, thus creating “doubt and confusion on the spirit of the rule of law and the integrity of the justice system”. James Tien asked: “Could other big banks or corporations use the same excuse of public interest to escape prosecution?” With the rule of law in mind, Tien said the Liberals would support Ng’s motion. This was critical support. There were 60 members in the old chamber, minus the president who by tradition would presumably not have voted. There were 21 pro-democracy lawmakers who were pledged to support the motion, and 29 sure to oppose. That put the Liberals and their 10 votes in the critical swing position. If they stuck to their position, Ng’s motion would pass narrowly, 31-29. But at the last minute, Tien said that “if all civil servants were to resign for their mistakes, the whole top tier of government might go”. This, despite having earlier charged the government with putting undue pressure on his party’s members. So the Liberals did not walk out, just as they did not walk out in the recent boondoggle. But one member of the party did walk out before the noconfidence vote: Ronald Arculli. A lawyer, Arculli had been expected to be the first Secretary for Justice under then Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa. In fact, Tung had put Arculli’s name forward during a visit to Beijing after taking office. After Tung’s return, I stood in the hallway outside the antechamber with Arculli and asked him about the appointment. His complexion darkened and he was clearly withholding emotions. He told me that he would not be getting the job and that Tung had apologised profusely to him for not being able to get his appointment approved. The post would eventually go to Elsie Leung. On the night of the no-confidence vote, I was sitting in the gallery. The chamber in those days was close quarters, with no obstruction or glass between reporters and legislators. I leaned over to view Arculli as he spoke and turned up the volume on my headset. His seat is, conveniently, closest to the main chamber door. He tells the council that he will not join his party in abstaining. Jaw trembling, voice cracking and tears in his eyes, he says: “Whatever the result, there are no winners. The loser is Hong Kong.” With that he turned around and walked out. The council’s voting display then failed and the votes had to be counted by hand. Without the Liberals’ votes, the motion was defeated and the government officials were elated. There are walkouts, and then there are walkouts. THE CORRESPONDENT

MEDIA

Crowds to the rescue? In a media industry that struggles regularly with rising costs, declining revenues and retrenchments, it’s easy enough to see the appeal of the crowdfunding model, writes Jonathan Hopfner .

etter yet, it seems to work. It may be early days for Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), but the crowdfunded news platform has already posted some impressive achievements: by appealing directly to a concerned public it has far exceeded its initial fundraising goals, racked up well over a million page views in its first few weeks of operation, and positioned itself as a legitimate alternative to the mainstream Hong Kong media. Perhaps the most exciting thing about crowdfunding is that it appears to have the potential to smash the journalism industry’s version of Moore’s Law: that every news outlet needs either a critical mass of advertising dollars or subscribers -- both hard to build up without the other -- to survive. In theory, crowdsourced cash could allow an outlet to dispense with advertisers altogether, by either simply keeping it going or helping it scale to the point where it has a broad enough subscriber base to sustain itself. Not surprisingly, a thriving network of news outlets totally free of corporate influence seems like an enticing prospect to a lot of journalists and consumers alike. While it would be wrong to completely dismiss crowdfunding’s disruptive potential, its impact on journalism might also be more limited than many expect. There are a few issues with the crowdfunding model that are likely to come to the forefront as it moves into the mainstream. First, while crowdfunding is an efficient enough way to get a project off the ground – hence the name of the world’s biggest crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter – it’s associated primarily with launches or one-off

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events, and much less tested as a reliable means for keeping an enterprise going for the long term. Even if their fixed costs are low, many organisations will struggle to maintain the kind of interest they generate among potential donors in their early days. If a certain number of people are generous enough to agree to give a news enterprise money for an extended period, they’re essentially subscribers by any other name -- and we already know how many publications find it impossible to live on subscriptions alone. Related to this is the spectre of fatigue. Without meaning to downplay the dedication and talent of its team, at least a certain amount of the excitement (and ensuing donations) generated by HKFP had to do with its uniqueness; the sense that the founders were doing something new and audacious, or filling a void. Can the same hold true for subsequent ventures? In Hong Kong alone – where, it needs to be pointed out, the potential audience is relatively small and the audience for English-language journalism even smaller – we now have (or are about to have) FactWire, “an investigative news agency founded by the Hong Kong public”, HK Frontline Media and Real Hong Kong News promising unbiased local news coverage (though the latter two seem less active in soliciting funds). While all have different models, and few would dispute the need for more independent journalism at a crucial time for Hong Kong, more outlets competing in a similar way for donations, goodwill and eyeballs will inevitably test the endurance of potential supporters and the entire crowdfunding model.

MEDIA

This saturation is also playing out at the global level; from internationally minded outfits like Uncoverage and Byline to local champions like the Ferret (Scotland) and the Baltimore Brew (Baltimore), the pool of crowdfunded publications and news platforms – all pledging similar levels of independence and journalistic rigour – is vast and growing. Many of these platforms also promise journalism without a filter; liberated from the sway of advertisers and the baleful eyes of editors, correspondents will be free to upload their own content and interact directly with readers. Audiences in turn will be able to fund the stories or investigations they deem most worthy. Again, an exciting prospect – but it does raise the question of quality control. Editors are as fallible as everyone else, but even the best stories benefit from a second pair of eyes, and it’s no coincidence that the most groundbreaking or impactful journalism tends to come from outlets with a rigorous system of editorial checks and balances. Publications that are editorially driven by public demand may also struggle to build a coherent identity – perhaps not a necessity, but something that all the most celebrated media institutions, from The Economist to Vice, possess in some fashion. Finally, no one should forget individuals are just as

capable as companies or governments of harbouring prejudices and agendas, and of bankrolling the kind of journalism that caters precisely to their tastes. Crowdfunded journalism projects will depend on those with strong beliefs and a certain amount of resources for money – the same kind of people, in other words, that have the most influence over the media now, and that are most likely to support journalism in its existing incarnations. Crowdfunding is therefore likely to supplement, rather than transform, journalism as we know it. While it’s a welcome means to get much-needed projects and investigations off the ground, its feasibility as a long-term solution for a revenuesqueezed industry is far less certain. In one form or another, the old advertisers-or-subscribers equation will endure for some time yet. Jonathan Hopfner is a former Reuters News editor and current managing director of content-focused communications company New Narrative Ltd (www.newnarrative.com). THE CORRESPONDENT

MEDIA

New news kid on the block A brash, young English-language online newspaper is just out of the starting blocks in Hong Kong. While not short on ambition, does this latest entry in the media field have the professional and financial stamina to give the established players a run for their money?

Jonathan Sharp reports.

oosted financially and morale-wise by an exceptional crowdfunding appeal, Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) started regular publication on July 1, the 18th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Beijing’s rule. Its goal: to add diversity and a truly independent Grundy: HKFP arose out of Occupy coverage. voice to Hong Kong’s English-language media landscape which, according to Editor-in-Chief been extremely difficult to engage contributors on Tom Grundy, is currently inadequately served by the pro-establishment, pro-Beijing side.” But if such existing print, online and broadcasting outlets. people did want to contribute, “they would be more He also says that last year’s Occupy Central protests than welcome”. exposed a gap between the Chinese and English Impartial his publication may be, but Grundy media. Some stories and angles appearing in the concedes that his small pool of less than a dozen Chinese media were missed or ignored by the English young reporters can hardly compete with the resources press. HKFP aims to fill that gap. available to, for example, SCMP.com. But he insists HKFP, which as its name suggests is free of charge, his reporters had already bested their rivals on some made headlines even before its launch thanks to its major stories, including the water contamination story innovative fundraising technique. This was handled and the purge of lawyers on the Mainland. through the FringeBacker website, which specialises HKFP is billed as a not-for-profit business, but in raising money for media, creative and charitable how can it raise sufficient funds not just to survive organisations. A goal of raising HK$150,000 in but also expand and take on competitors head-toone month was surpassed in less than two days, a head? Any single source, such as crowdfunding, record, according to FringeBacker. And many of the is nowhere near enough. So Grundy says he will donations were small and from a broad base of Hong tap 10 fundraising sources – including advertising, Kong people.”I think that reflects the appetite for merchandising and sponsorship. He also has office what we are doing,” says Grundy. space at Cyberport, courtesy of the D100 digital Grundy, who graduated 10 years ago from the radio station founded by outspoken commentator UK’s Leeds University, taught for a while although Albert Cheng. HKFP also enjoys the support journalism was in his blood. He became known to and wisdom of a posse of veteran media experts, a wider audience during last year’s Occupy protests including Steve Vines and Tim Hamlett. when the BBC and other international media One section of the community that is being less outlets called on him for his reportage of what was than supportive is the Hong Kong government, happening on the streets. which for arcane reasons denies online outfits such Grundy insists that HKFP has no political agenda, as HKFP the same level of access granted to print although he makes no secret of his own progressive media. “They have denied it to us because we are political views. But during the Occupy protests, “I not printed on dead trees,” fumes Grundy. “It’s mad. never touched a yellow ribbon. I never got involved. Everyone gets their news online now.” We aim in our hard news reporting to be as impartial Well almost everyone. In its first month of operation as we can.” HKFP had 303,360 unique visitors and 1,311,667 He said of the myriad contributors to HKFP, “it has page views. Not bad for a new kid on the block.

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MEDIA

The FCC's social media is up and running By Laurence Witherington

he FCC's new Board is determined to catapult the Club into the digital age. Journalism itself has slowly adjusted to terrific technological changes, and so the FCC must follow. We have a Twitter account, a Facebook page and a LinkedIn profile, but these have been used only sporadically in the past. From now on a new socialmedia team will occupy these accounts and make the most of them. The goals of the social-media team align neatly with those of the FCC: to promote press freedom, to share brilliant journalism and to advertise Club events and the attractions of the bar. Through social media, the FCC hopes to reach out to members and people who share our cause across Asia, to unite people online and become a regional hub of journalistic integrity and human rights. There is soon to be a new FCC website, and all the stories and pages that appear there in a new format will be shared far and wide. Twitter and Facebook are increasingly driving readers to digital publications, and articles

from The Correspondent will likewise be pushed out to a larger audience. There they will be joined by tasty food offers and details of special occasions at the Club. LinkedIn lags behind Facebook as a traffic booster, but is a prime location for job hunters and recruiters. The FCC will post listings there to help journalists seeking work, freelancers find publications and reporters find fixers. Please follow the Twitter account and “like” the Facebook page (details below) and use those platforms to get in touch with the social media team. If you have stories you want to share or jobs you’d like to advertise, let us know. Good-old email will still be used to get information to members, but social media will allow us to vary our approach and reach non-members across Asia who rely on the FCC for the facts, and for a voice of support in tough situations. The FCC should be at the centre of the journalism community in Asia, and social media is crucial to this lofty goal. Twitter: https://twitter.com/fcchk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fcchk.org

Club News online Those of you who use the FCC website regularly will have noticed that regular updates of club events and activities are now featured and archived on the new Club News page. Click on the Club News link on the website home page or go direct to:

www.fcchk.org/fcclatest/ THE CORRESPONDENT

THEN and NOW

Zetland Street 1972-2015 Images by Bob Davis Zetland Street takes its name from Zetland Hall, the Masonic lodge named for the then Grand Master, Thomas Dundas, Second Earl of Zetland, who was the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England from 1844 to 1870. Two lodge buildings were built on the corner of Ice House and Zetland Streets, the first in 1846 and the second in 1865, and commanded sweeping views of Central and the harbour. The second building was destroyed by Allied bombing during the liberation of Hong Kong in 1944 and the site sold to Hong Kong Electric for HK$900,000. Zetland Hall then moved to its current premises at No. 1 Kennedy Road and Hong Kong Electric’s Zetland Street Zone Substation occupies the original site to the present day. Zetland Street, and the adjacent On Lan Street and On Hing Terrace, had managed, until quite recently, to remain a quiet oasis of mostly old tong lau shop houses in the middle of Hong Kong’s CBD. These have now fallen to the relentless march of Hong Kong property developers and been replaced by Hong Kong’s ubiquitous towering high-rises.

1974: Looking down Zetland Street from the site of the former Zetland Hall towards On Lan Street and Queens Road Central.

2015: On Lan Street’s crown jewel, the newly completed 18 On Lan building, has replaced the last of the tong lau shop houses on the corner of Zetland and On Lan Streets, and new stairs have replaced the old leading to the redeveloped On Hing Terrace.

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IN REVIEW

Lee Fook Chee’s Hong Kong

Photo by Lee Fook Chee. Copyright: Estate of Lee Fook Chee

Laurence Lai.

By Edward Stokes

Overlooking Hong Kong from the Peak circa 1957. Insert: Lee Fook Chee in 2005.

lmost five years ago, in late 2010, Edward Stokes came across a collection of Hong Kong photographs. Founder of The Photographic Heritage Foundation, Stokes saw in the images a photographic memoir of Hong Kong. The book, “Lee Fook Chee’s Hong Kong, Photographs from the 1950s”, was recently published. A Wall exhibition at the FCC during August showed Lee’s photos, a time capsule of the 1950s. Here Stokes remembers the journey. On an autumn day, in late 2010, I visited the Peak. There, near the Upper Tram Station, I encountered an elderly man. Short, cheerful, engaging and dressed in what I came to know as his trademark white singlet, he was selling photo prints amid the tourists. Through his broken English, and my poorer Cantonese, we briefly connected. I bought a few prints as keepsakes and to help with his business. And we exchanged addresses. He was a Mr Lee, from a Tai Po housing estate. I thought nothing more of the passing encounter, even though The Photographic Heritage Foundation, a not-for-profit publisher dedicated to discovering

and publishing unknown historical photographs, and also aiming to bring educational benefits, cares greatly about “lost” images. But the Foundation was then engaged with another book. And, irregularly funded, and thus always fighting for time, there is only so much the body can do. About a month later I received an email from Singapore, from a Yuet Ying Hwee: “My uncle in Hong Kong, Mr Lee Fook Chee, wants to meet and show you his photographs”. My memory was blank: Lee Fook Chee? Then slowly my mind cleared: “Mr Lee, the elderly man on the Peak!” With time and projects pressing in on me, I sent off a typically non-committal response to unsought enquiries. “I am not sure if there is any benefit… My sincere apologies…” I did not comment on the image quality, though the prints I had bought were mediocre at best. Fortunately – how very fortunately – Lee’s Singapore niece persisted, replying that her uncle had been a “professional photographer”. This could mean almost anything. Had he been a studio owner? THE CORRESPONDENT

IN REVIEW

Clockwise from top left: Chinese Junk off Ap Lei Chau; Aberdeen Harbour circa 1954; Happy Valley Racecourse in 1956; a new arrival from China posing on the tracks at Shatin in 1953; Buddhist Pau Lei on Castle Peak; rickshaw and passenger, Kowloon.

Or perhaps a newspaper cameraman? One could be fairly sure he had not been a salon art photographer, given his appearance, clearly modest means, and the only average laminated prints I had purchased. Now my curiosity was piqued, my photographic and historical antennae up. For, as my photographer’s eye knew, and as a previous Foundation book based on 1946-47 postwar photographs by Hedda Morrison had proved, poor prints do not necessarily imply weak negatives. One can have aesthetically and technically strong negatives yet only mediocre prints. So it was agreed: Lee Fook Chee and I would meet. We rendezvoused a few weeks later. Within an hour Lee and I had begun to bond: two photographers, over 20 years apart in age, and with hardly any common language. Yet we shared a love of photography, appreciated its challenges, and we knew the profound changes witnessed in Hong Kong since the 1950s. In the 1950s, the son of a teacher, I grew up here. As for almost all Westerners resident in the Colony then, my family had a comfortable, though not affluent, life. By contrast Lee, a struggling immigrant living on a squatter hillside, eked out a living by selling photographs to tourists on the Peak. The early gestation of books often is complex and time-consuming; and with collectors or institutions the “dance” required to gain access to images often is very protracted. Indeed, the more valuable or significant the photographs, the longer the engagement with frustrating institutional brick walls. Lee had no such pretensions. There were no 26

THE CORRESPONDENT

barriers to entry. And on my part there was now no question that I should visit and view his original negatives. For, when we met, Lee had brought three unforgettable photographs: matted prints, with luminous tones and incredible detail, totally unlike the laminated prints bought on the Peak. I hold the same prints in my hands now, the matts marked from the countless people who since have seen and admired them. In one image a pre-war built Star Ferry steadily churns across Victoria Harbour towards Central District, its stately buildings a white line against the barren hills. In another, the bulk of the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank and the Bank of China rise, two massive “comprador” monoliths, beside the Edwardian Prince’s Building. In the third, pedestrians of all kinds proceed up and down one of the stepped streets, near today’s FCC. Very soon I visited Lee at his home in Tai Po. My photos taken that afternoon vividly recall our meeting place: his home was barely 110 square feet. Yet there was almost no clutter. On one side, opposite the bed, beside a wok burner, was a shelf where Lee made his prints: a minute, well laid out ‘darkroom’, with an enlarger, chemical trays, drying lines… The centre of his old age, I came to realise. From the highest shelves Lee took down two tin mooncake boxes, the most cherished containers he possessed. In these two seemingly ordinary boxes were his best negatives. I was mesmerized. As negative after negative was placed on my light-box, aspects of Hong Kong in the 1950s leapt into light and focus. Besides their fine photographic technique and appeal, and their historical significance, the images showed my childhood home. This same pleasure was shared in early 2015 when, with Robin Moyer, we made the final selection for the FCC Wall Exhibition. Robin also grew up here; and, we discovered to mutual delight, we both had lived at Repulse Bay – and both had attended KGV. To return to the story: within hours I knew

that this treasure trove deserved a book; and The Photographic Heritage Foundation was precisely tasked to discover, to research, and to contextualise such images. Soon after, reporting to the Foundation board, I showed the three prints and described the range of negatives: of Central, Victoria Harbour, Kowloon, the New Territories, and coastal life… And the images were not the work of an outsider, such as Hedda Morrison, nor those of a comfortable salon photographer. They were the hard-scrabble images of a poor Chinese immigrant. Lee had been born in Singapore in 1927. An orphan, he became a seaman, and landed at Hong Kong in 1947. He settled here, and, helped by a cousin in a photo studio, Lee learned the basics of photography. Then, with can-do spirit, Lee carved out a living with his camera during the 1950s, selling images to tourists on the Peak. But by the early 1960s, with the advent of colour prints and cheap cameras, business declined. Most of Lee’s remaining working years were spent selling ice-creams from a Dairy Farm bicycle. His negatives lay hidden and unseen. But by Lee they were never forgotten. Thus our engagement began. In translation and otherwise helped by Kin-ming Liu, FCC member, originating editor of the book My First Trip to China and now a consultant, the Foundation deepened its relationship with Lee: gaining his trust to complete a calendar, then a book. Almost entirely unschooled, yet shrewd and practical, Lee allowed Kin-ming and I to lead him through necessary legal and practical steps for creating photo-led books. A Hong Kong historian, Dr Patricia Chiu, was engaged to write about his life, based on his oral history recollections and related contemporary sources. From this we learned that, over recent years, Lee had sought to interest others in publishing his photographs. His images, despite his lack of formal education, he knew to be of heritage value. But seeking book publication was beyond Lee’s capability. Now, with great regard for Lee, the Foundation took up the challenge. Adequate funding, the sine qua non for fine book publishing, finally was found, when a kind

Photos by Lee Fook Chee. Copyright: Estate of Lee Fook Chee

IN REVIEW

intermediary came to our assistance, introducing us to a philanthropist. All this is recorded in the book. Hence, the book’s development could begin in earnest. Lee and I encountered one another just in time. From being a healthy 84-year-old when we first met, in early 2012 Lee quite visibly declined. Then, beset with a severe life-threatening spinal condition, he lost the use of both legs: the vigorous octogenarian who had roamed with satisfaction each day from Tai Po to the Peak now was trapped, bed-ridden or in a wheelchair. His mind – and above all his spirits – plummeted. In September 2012 Lee passed away. Hong Kong had lost an immigrant son of the hard postwar era. Unknown in his lifetime, was Lee a photographer? Indeed so, given his wide-ranging collection from the 1950s. Yet, given his later decades earning a living off a bicycle – when outside a school he was known simply as “the ice cream man”, he was also one of the countless thousands who, struggling down the years, made Hong Kong their home – and, tenaciously, sustained unsung lives. “Lee Fook Chee’s Hong Kong” can be purchased at the FCC Concierge. Ed Stokes is happy to sign copies, all you have to do is give the name for inscribing to the Concierge staff and Ed will sign within a few days. The book is also available in English and Chinese language bookstores, especially The Commercial Press and Joint Publishing Company stores. The ISBN is 9789620756573. THE CORRESPONDENT

ON THE WALL

Rickshaws wait in Wyndham Street. The Ice and Cold Storage building, the site of the FCC and the Fringe Club today, can be seen at the top left of the image.

Lee Fook Chee’s Hong Kong Photographs by Lee Fook Chee

hotgraphs from the recently published book, “Lee Fook Chee’s Hong Kong, Photographs from the 1950s”, were exhibited at the FCC during August. They represent a unique window into the Hong Kong of the 1950s. For the story behind their chance discovery and the subsequent book see pages 25 to 27.

THE CORRESPONDENT

ON THE WALL

Des Voeux Road to the west of Pedder Street on a hot summerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s day.

A pre-war Star Ferry crosses Victoria Harbour from Central. One of the few Hong Kong icons that has not been changed or replaced.

Sailors from one of the Commonwealth navies pose for the classic tourist snap on the Peak overlooking Hong Kong and Victoria Harbour. THE CORRESPONDENT

REPORTAGE

Seventy years on: No story worth dying for? Accredited war correspondents in the Pacific War were wholly dependent on the US military for all their basic needs, and their copy often subjected to multiple layers of censorship. Many also lost their lives, writes Gavin Greenwood.

he media’s principal role and status among the enterprise, with the British and Australians largely Allied powers during the Second World War was confined to the peripheries where they played minor, to attempt balancing credible journalism with varying if gruelling, roles in defeating the Japanese empire. As degrees of propaganda. Strictures and controls by a result most of the war correspondents covering the government and the military left individual war conflict were either US nationals or non-Americans correspondents with the task of mainly providing working for the US media organisations. censored or selfFor many war censored colour pieces correspondents the The Pacific War was an overwhelmingly most dangerous, if to accompany official dispatches rather than professionally rewarding, American enterprise, report on the technical period of the Pacific War and operational aspects of came during the initial with the British and Australians strategy or combat. Japanese advance before While necessary in their roles could be largely confined to the peripheries the context of security, effectively brought under meeting such expectations the formal control of their where they played minor, while trying to retain a respective governments semblance of professional and militaries. if gruelling, roles in defeating integrity proved a major Outbreak of the war and unremitting test between Japan and the the Japanese empire. As a result most of Allied powers in early for journalists unused to writing within the December 1941 led to the war correspondents covering confines of censorship, foreign correspondents the pressure to maintain from the US and British the conflict were either US nationals national morale or Commonwealth nations promote an individual being caught up in fast or non-Americans working for the US commander’s personal or moving events or quickly military agenda. detained. media organisations. The two main theatres Foreign correspondents of operation for the Allied were rounded up in powers – Europe and the Pacific (Far East to the Japan and other countries under immediate Japanese British) – made differing demands of their respective control, notably Saigon in French Indochina, where media. The European war was the strategic priority at least eight Western journalists were detained. as the consequences of a German victory would have In Shanghai two UPI journalists, Robert Martin been to destablise Western nations for generations. and William McDougall, managed to get through The Pacific War, by contrast and from a Western Japanese lines by acting drunk and eventually made perspective, was quickly containable – albeit within their way to the Nationalist capital Chungking. a vast arena – and posed no direct threat to the US or McDougall subsequently reached Java after the fall European countries with colonial claims in Asia. of Singapore, and was captured after the ship he was The Pacific War was an overwhelmingly American evacuated on was sunk by Japanese bombers – he

THE CORRESPONDENT

REPORTAGE

CBS Radio correspondent William J. Dunn, as the representative of correspondents travelling with General Douglas Macarthur when he returned to the Philippines in 1944, is pictured second right in the statue at the Leyte Landing Memorial.

survived the war but gave up journalism for the Catholic church, retiring as a Monsignor. Others had equally remarkable escapes. O’Dowd Gallagher writing for the Daily Express and CBS’ Cecil Brown managed to get on board the British battlecruiser HMS Repulse when the warship was sent with HMS Prince of Wales to intercept a Japanese invasion fleet off the east coast of Malaya. On December 10 the two ships were sunk by Japanese aircraft. Both men survived, with Brown filing an uncensored radio report of the sinking the following day from Singapore – an act that led the British authorities to withdraw his accreditation. By the time the impetus of the initial Japanese advance into the Southwest Pacific had been halted in early June 1942 at the Battle of Midway, the US military authorities had established rigorous and complex protocols governing the role of the media in the theatre. Accredited war correspondents became wholly dependent on the military for all their basic needs, including communications and transport, while all their copy was subjected to often multiple layers of censorship. This relationship left correspondents able to only produce print or imagery that reflected the priorities and whims of senior commanders. Phillip Knightley’s book The First Casualty covers censorship and propaganda in detail – and as there can be few foreign correspondents who have not read this important work I’ll not belabour the points he makes on these issues. Lost for words There is no comprehensive record of the Allied war correspondents who died in the Pacific War – let

alone those killed serving Japan, the two Chinese sides and other nations caught up the conflict – although some individuals have made their own assessments. There is also no official memorial to mark their lives and work. In October 2012 the socalled ‘Correspondents Corridor’ – named in 1972 by then defence secretary Melvin Laird – that served as a de facto memorial to correspondents killed in the Second World War accredited to the US armed forces and subsequent conflicts was rebranded the ‘OSD Office of Public Affairs corridor’ to include the large number of personnel retrained by the Office of the Secretary of Defense to ensure the media received the government’s version of military events. According to some estimates more than 10% of the 500 or so war correspondents “accredited for service” by the US military – that is fed, sheltered and transported – were killed in the course of the conflict. Double this percentage were wounded. Other estimates offer a lower ratio, but there is no breakdown between the European and Pacific theatres. A necessarily incomplete list of Allied war correspondents known to have died in the Pacific War shows that of the 25 noted below 18 were killed in combat and seven were killed in accidental air crashes. A number of others died of disease, or simply disappeared. These brief notes merely touch on the lives and deaths of these men, but may serve as the base for more extensive biographies if plans to develop The Correspondent’s digital coverage permit. continued on page 34 THE CORRESPONDENT

F&B

Food across the world, from Germany to Argentina

Argentinian Food Promotion - Brochette de Cordero

THE CORRESPONDENT

F&B

German Food Promotion Oktoberfest - Air Cured Meat Platter

It's Oktoberfest time again, so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time for German food and beer in the first week of October. What better than an Air-cured Meat Platter to help the beer go down. Or if beer is not your tipple then try it with one of Germany's crisp white wines. From over the border in Belgium comes Gratinated Witlof baked with Prosciutto and Gruyere and other great dishes as part of the Belgian Food Promotion just before the Oktoberfest blowout. Witlof is also known as Belgian endive or chicory. Although Argentina is primarily beef territory, down in Patagonia where sheep do roam you find the source of Brochette de Cordero or lamb brochette. There will also be many fine dishes and wines as part of the Argentinian Food Promotion in early November.

Belgian Food Promotion - Gratinated Witlof baked with Prosciutto & Gruyere CARSTENSCHAEL.COM

THE CORRESPONDENT

REPORTAGE

Seventy years on... continued from page 31 The toll The toll among correspondents who covered the Pacific War: Dewitt ‘Witt’ Hancock, Associated Press, died when the ship he was being evacuated from Java on was sunk by Japanese aircraft on March 6 1942. Reuter’s Far East manager Kenneth Selby-Walker, John Findon of the Daily Express, Eric Davis from the BBC and Australian photographer Hedley Metcalf disappeared without trace around March 8 1942 following the Japanese invasion of Java, probably as they attempted to reach Ceylon by sea. Melville Jacoby, TIME-Life, killed in Darwin, Australia, by an aircraft that lost control during takeoff on April 27 1942. Jacoby had been evacuated from the beleaguered US Philippine island fortress of Bataan barely a month earlier. Jack Singer, International News Service, died of wounds on September 15 1942 sustained when the aircraft carrier USS Wasp was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during the Guadalcanal campaign. Byron Darnton, New York Times, died as the result of a “friendly fire” incident when the boat carrying him to Buna, New Guinea, was attacked by US aircraft on October 18 1942. Carl Thusgaard, Acme News Pictures cameraman, killed when his aircraft was shot down during a raid on Madang, New Guinea, on July 20 1943. Brydon Taves, United Press, killed in an air crash in New Guinea on October 27 1943. Keith Palmer, Melbourne Herald/Australian News Service, killed in a Japanese air raid during the Bougainville landings on November 23 1943. Lucian Labaudt, a noted muralist on assignment as a war artist for Life magazine, died in an air crash in Assam, eastern India, on December 13 1943. Pendil Rayner, Brisbane Telegraph, killed in an air crash in New Guinea on December 27 1943.

Malaysia march for free press... continued from page 13 authorities to immediately reverse the decision and allow the journalists to continue their work without censorship, intimidation or interruption,” they said. Brad Adams, the Asia director of the New Yorkbased Human Rights Watch added: “Blocking a website and threatening critics with prosecution will 34

THE CORRESPONDENT

Raymond Clapper, Scripps Howard Newspaper Alliance, killed in an air crash in the Marshall Islands on February 3 1944. Stuart Emery, News Chronicle, and Stanley Wills, Daily Herald, died when the aircraft carrying them and Chindit leader Major-General Orde Wingate crashed in Assam, eastern India, on March 24 1944 killing all on board. William Shenkel, Newsweek, killed when his aircraft was lost on a bombing raid against Japan on June 15 1944. Damien Parer, Paramount News cameraman, killed on Peleliu (Palau) by Japanese defenders on September 17 1944 while filming US Marines. Parer, an Australian, made the Oscar-winning documentary “Kokoda Trail” in 1942. Asahel Bush, AP, Stanley Gunn, Fort Worth Star Telegram and John Terry, Chicago Daily News, died of wounds received during a Japanese air raid on the Philippines city of Tacloban on October 25 1944. John Andrew, UP,I killed when his aircraft was lost on a bombing raid against Japan on November 5 1944. Frank Prist, Acme News Pictures cameraman, killed by a sniper on Leyte, November 12 1944. William Chickering, TIME-Life, killed in a kamikaze attack on the battleship USS New Mexico during the Lingayan Gulf landings in the Philippines on 6 January 1945. Frederick Painton, Reader’s Digest, died of a heart attack on Guam on April 1 1945. Earnest ‘Ernie” Pyle, Scripps Howard Newspaper Alliance, killed in a Japanese mortar attack on Ie Shima on April 18 1945. Pyle gained great popularity as the “voice” of the US combat soldier. William West, Exchange Telegraph, killed by a Japanese sniper near Pegu 50 miles north in early May 1945. John Elliott, Australian Broadcasting Co., killed by Japanese troops near Balikpapan, Borneo, on July 3 1945. John Cashman, International News Service, killed in an air crash on Okinawa on July 30 1945. He was the last US journalist to die in the Pacific War.

not make the firestorm over alleged government corruption go away”. However, not everybody remains totally enamored of The Edge Media Group. The abrupt closure of The Edge Review – a magazine which began less than three years ago and was widely seen as an attempt to revive the ethos of the revered Far Eastern Economic Review – has upset some in the business. It closed without a word to subscribers and barely two days notice was given to its stable of influential writers. There are also grumbles over a lack of kill fees and claims lodged for unpaid work.

SPEAKERS

What they said... Summer is with us so there were fewer speaker lunches during the past month or so, although those we had covered some important issues, from Scotland's new and powerful place in world politics to the future of China's struggling economy.

FCC staff

birth of James Legge, a Scot who was the leading Sea change in Scottish politics figure of mid-19th century Hong Kong. He founded In 2007, the Scottish National Party began a series the city’s first school for girls, was the most famous of political firsts. They became the first party to translator of Confucius form a sustainable minority and later became the first government in the Scottish chaired professor of Chinese Parliament; the first studies at Oxford. Scottish party to then form “It’s quite interesting to a majority government note the results of a social in 2011; and then, after attitudes survey which the 2014 referendum is conducted in Scotland on independence, they each year. The most recent became this year the thirdone shows that almost largest political party at 60% of people trust the Westminster, capturing 56 Scottish government to out of 59 Scottish seats. act in Scotland’s longNicola Sturgeon, First term interests. For the Minister of Scotland, UK government, the who was instrumental in corresponding figure is just leading Scotland on the 26%. parliamentary reform path, “At a very basic level that spoke to a full house at an is because – at least in part FCC breakfast on July 31. - the Scottish parliament is “It’s a pleasure to make physically much closer to my first visit to Hong Kong” the people that it represents she said. “As many of you Nicola Sturgeon: historic links with Hong Kong. than the UK parliament will know, Scotland and could ever be. After all, Hong Kong share ties which all of its members represent Scottish constituencies; go back generations. These ties can be seen in the at Westminster, fewer than 10% do. In addition, Mackintosh tartan of the Hong Kong Police Force the Scottish Parliament is elected by proportional pipes and drums, the thistle of the Jardine Matheson representation – so its composition more closely group emblem, and in the names of places such as mirrors the views of the people who elect it.” Aberdeen Harbour and Edinburgh Place. It appears that the hands-on approach of the “But since I arrived, what’s struck me much more Scottish parliament has paid dividends with Scotland than those historic links, has been the strength of having higher employment, lower unemployment our modern connections. I’ve been involved in and higher economic activity than the rest of the UK. discussions on collaboration between Scotland and “We’ve also supported social justice, alongside Hong Kong on issues such as healthy ageing, loweconomic development,” Sturgeon said. “We have carbon technology and the future of cities. introduced world leading legislation to tackle the “I’ve seen the interest there is here for Scottish products in areas such as fashion and food and drink. plight of homelessness; we reintroduced state funded university education; we legislated for equal marriage And most of all, I’ve been struck by the warmth of the welcome that I’ve received everywhere I’ve gone.” and passed the most ambitious climate change targets in the world. We’ve taken very strong action to deal Scotland and Hong Kong have a long connection, with Scotland’s sometimes poor relationship with she said. This year marked the bicentennial of the THE CORRESPONDENT

SPEAKERS

Is reform still possible for China's economy? Xu Sitao, chief economist for China at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, at an FCC lunch on August 24, presented what is likely to unfold, in terms 36

THE CORRESPONDENT

of financial liberalisation, against the backdrop of slowing economic growth and stock market interventions. Xu has been chief economist for China at Deloitte since 2014. He was chief representative of the Economist Group in China and director of global forecasting, China, at the Economist Intelligence Unit from 2004 to 2014. Before joining The Economist Group, Xu worked for ICBC (Asia) as a senior economist in 2003 and was Societe Generale’s chief

Photos by FCC staff

alcohol and invested heavily to expand and transform early years’ education and care.” This twin commitment to economic development and social justice appears to have resonated very strongly with people across the country. BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour named her the UK’s most powerful and influential woman this year. “I’ve explained that background, because it’s impossible to understand last year’s referendum – and the significant support for independence it demonstrated – without recognising that it was partly a consequence of the distinctiveness of Scotland’s political culture, and the success of the Scottish parliament. “But it’s also important to recognise that the referendum has become a cause of further democratic engagement, as well as a consequence. “That’s because the referendum inspired a quite extraordinary level of enthusiasm and energy. It was recognised around the world as a model of peaceful democratic engagement. The turnout was the highest for any vote on such a scale ever held in the UK. Everyone realised they had a vote that counted in a decision which really mattered. People got to imagine the different possible futures available to them and to their nation. That turned out to be a hugely powerful and inspiring process – including for many people who had never before participated, in any way, in the democratic process. “And the effects have lasted. Politics in Scotland has been transformed. Some political parties – including my own - have seen a significant increase in membership. Voter turnout in Scotland at May’s general election was five percentage points higher than it was in the UK as a whole. And of course the results of that election were extraordinary. My party went from having 6 of Scotland’s 59 seats in the UK House of Commons, to having 56 of them. Sturgeon was quick to point out that the election result doesn’t provide a mandate for independence or a further referendum. But it did reaffirm the importance of Scotland having a much stronger voice in UK affairs, and it left no doubt about the desire of people in Scotland for a more powerful Scottish parliament.

Paul Yip: reporting and copycat suicide.

economist for Asia (ex-Japan) from 2001 to 2002.

Guidelines on suicide reporting The director of the Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, Professor Paul Yip, at an FCC lunch on July 7, spoke about how suicide news is reported in Hong Kong compared to overseas. He detailed research evidence on the relationship between problematic reporting and copycat suicide. Yip also said the media could contribute positively to suicide prevention. The audience members were given a newly updated copy of “Recommendations on Suicide Reporting for Media Professionals”. Yip is also a professor at the Department of Social Work and Social Administration at the University of Hong Kong. His research interests are in suicide prevention and demographic transition and its implications. He won the Stengel Award from the International Association for Suicide Prevention in 2011, and is a former vicepresident of the association; and an outstanding researcher award and best supervisor award from the University of Hong Kong in Xu Sitao: liberalisation at crossroads. 2012 and 2013.

REPORTAGE

Noel Monks at a dinner in Addis Ababa is sitting on the far side of the table wearing a light-coloured suit, centre, with Evelyn Waugh to his left.

The real scoop In the year of war anniversaries, it was 80 years ago Fascist Italy invaded Abyssinia. It was also the year of the biggest scoop of the time, writes Sarah

Monks , whose father Noel was there.

here was only one genuine scoop in the febrile journalistic run-up 80 years ago to Fascist Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia, present-day Eritrea and the northern half of Ethiopia. Ironically, it slipped through the fingers of Evelyn Waugh, the man who would later lampoon his fellow foreign correspondents mercilessly in his hilarious satirical novel, “Scoop”. Far from being a surprise windfall for Waugh’s bumbling fictional hero William Boot of The Beast, the real scoop, in August 1935, was a triumph of tradecraft by veteran World War I correspondent Sir Percival Phillips of London’s Daily Telegraph, in league with his Associated Press colleague James A. “Jim” Mills. Among foreign correspondents in the capital Addis Ababa feting their achievement was Australian journalist Noel Monks (this Club member’s father) and others destined to be caricatured in composite when “Scoop” was published in 1938.

“Sir Percy” was the first to reveal that oil and mineral rights to the richest half of the ancient kingdom had been deeded for 75 years to an American entity called the African Development and Exploitation Corporation. A mysterious English adventurer called F. W. Rickett – representing Standard Oil interests – had obtained this extraordinary concession from Abyssinia’s beleaguered Emperor Haile Selassie. Unfazed by cable charges of two and sixpence per word – Haile Selassie was also Emperor of the lucrative radio station – Phillips filed about 3,000 words. When his scoop was splashed across the Telegraph on August 31 1935, it was a journalistic sensation with world-wide repercussions. The Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah was attempting, via a private deal, to save his country by embroiling the US before Mussolini could invade. “Into Addis in the next few hours came queries – we call them ‘rockets’ now – from editors all over THE CORRESPONDENT

REPORTAGE

the world to their unhappy representatives,” Monks wrote in his 1955 memoir “Eyewitness”. “As the only Australian journalist there, I felt very keenly that I had let my Australian connections down – not to mention The News of the World in London.” But there were no hard feelings. “…it was a pleasure to be ‘scooped’ by such a delightful person,” Monks added. Seated next to Monks at a celebratory dinner in the dingy dining hall of the Imperial Hotel in Addis was Waugh. Nearby was the young W.F. “Bill” Deedes, then of the Morning Post, who for years was presumed to be the model for Waugh’s nature columnist-turned-war correspondent, Boot (Deedes fended off such suggestions, though did admit to having departed, Boot-like, for Addis with quarter of a ton of baggage). Waugh, already a seasoned traveller and noted writer, had covered the Emperor’s coronation in Abyssinia five years earlier. He was taken on by the Daily Mail to cover the Abyssinian crisis after Sir Percival, a star “special correspondent”, defected to the Telegraph. In his 1936 book “Waugh in Abyssinia”, a study in sharp-eyed, opinionated reportage, Waugh was commendably open about how he – and thus the Mail – lost the scoop. En route to Abyssinia, he had chanced to meet Rickett, a fellow traveller. He found him “a lighthearted companion” who spoke openly but vaguely of “a mission”. Waugh sensed that Rickett was “up to something” in Addis but “thought it impertinent to inquire further”. Rickett soon promised Waugh “an important piece of news”. But the appointed evening came and went. Fully expecting Rickett to be mired in his secretive negotiations for some time – a fateful misjudgment coloured, perhaps, by Waugh’s dim view of the Emperor’s regime – and with developments in Addis seemingly at a standstill, Waugh and a colleague set off in search of news some 200 miles away. Within days, he was chased by cables from London: “What do you know Anglo American oil concession?”; “Must have fullest details oil concession.”; “Badly left oil concession suggest you return to Addis immediately”. For Waugh, “It was now clear that something important had happened in our absence…” By the time he got back to Addis there had been a dramatic twist. Amid the international furore, the African Development and Exploitation Corporation, authorised US Secretary of State Cordell Hull to announce that it had completely withdrawn from the concession. Waugh later maintained that Rickett “had no desire, once it was signed, to keep his coup a secret. It was by chance that it became the single sensational scoop of the entire war.” Monks recalled it differently: “…to wily old Percy 38

THE CORRESPONDENT

Phillips and his crony Jim Mills of Associated Press, Rickett was a man to watch closely. They never let him out of their sight and they got their ‘scoop’.” In the archives of the Associated Press, Mills reveals that Rickett had made a secret pact: if he and Phillips would observe strict confidence about his secret activities Rickett would, within a few days give them “one of the biggest stories that ever happened”. Unlike Waugh, the two pledged their faith and awaited developments. Hence they were at the palace in the dead of night to witness the moment when the Emperor placed his seal on the contract. At Rickett’s request, they even prepared the official communique for use by other correspondents – more than 36 hours after their scoop had appeared. “In those days,” wrote Monks, “it was common practice when a foreign correspondent was scooped to rush off a hot denial. But “there was no ‘knocking’ of this Ricketts story,” he conceded. “…no one could take Sir Percival Phillips’ scoop away from him.” Well up to a point, Lord Copper, as Waugh’s hapless foreign editor of The Beast would say to “Scoop’s” fictional media baron. In “Scoop”, Waugh had Sir Jocelyn Hitchcock, a thinly-disguised Sir Percival, called away and reassigned as public interest in “Ishmaelia” waned. Meanwhile, the rest of “Scoop’s” rambunctious foreign press corps was lured out of the capital on a ruse. Only Boot, already sacked for incompetence, remained. After stumbling upon a spectacular story about a Russian-inspired coup and cabling his scoop (“I thought I might as well send this all the same”), Boot was rehired and repatriated in glory to London. Not so for Waugh. It was a bitter blow for the Mail to have their man in Addis scooped by their former star turn and now rival. In December, as other news organisations also retreated, Waugh received his dismissal by cable. Around that time, when stuck in Addis with the telephone lines cut, Waugh wrote to his future wife: "Still all this will make a funny novel so it isnt [sic.] wasted". Monks offered a somewhat different perspective: “I’ve always wondered why the world’s great writers of our time make such poor journalists.” Footnote: Correspondents accompanying President Obama on his historic visit to Ethiopia in July would have been disappointed if – armed with “Scoop” – they sought out the legendary Imperial Hotel. In January this year, Addis Ababa’s Itegue Taitu Hotel, as it later became known, was destroyed by fire. Grateful acknowledgements to Dina Monks, Steve Vickers, Christopher and Chris Dobson, Valerie Komor (Director of AP Corporate Archives) and others, especially for their efforts to help identify correspondents photographed at the dinner in Addis Ababa. See page 40 for a profile of Noel Monks.

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THE CORRESPONDENT

LAST WORD

'No war for this war correspondent'

Noel Monks in Addis Ababa in 1935.

n the peaceful English summer of 1935 young Australian journalist Noel Monks was in Fleet Street thinking of war. Small paragraphs had been appearing in the papers about mounting tension between Mussolini’s Italy and Emperor Haile Selassie’s Abyssinia. Mussolini had historical scores to settle in the biblical “Land of Sheba”, going back to Italy’s defeat in the First Italo-Ethiopian War of 1895, and designs on expanding Italy’s African empire. Haile Selassie, meanwhile, was pinning hopes on Abyssinia’s membership of the League of Nations, which forbade aggression among members. Monks quit his job on the Daily Express and took off for Abyssinia as a freelance. One of the first foreign correspondents to arrive in the capital, he had only 10 pounds when he stepped off the train at Addis Ababa, no job, and he still owed 20 pounds for the passage. Just days later Monks had four jobs and 200 pounds, thanks to a sudden spike in international media interest in “the Abyssinian crisis”. Only weeks before, Australian media tycoon Sir Keith Murdoch had rebuffed an approach from Monks [“Think your plans foolish adventure. Regret cannot help and strongly advise against”]. Now it was Sir Keith who cabled the 200 pounds [“Appreciate your initiative stop. Want you to represent us stop…arranging collect facilities regards.”] “Surely never before had a freelance 40

THE CORRESPONDENT

journalist such a break,” Monks later wrote. The swelling corps of correspondents in Addis went to sleep each night to the beating of drums and the roar of the Emperor’s 20 or so caged lions in the palace driveway. The Abyssinians would use lions as weapons when, on October 3, 1935, Italy finally invaded, pitting Mussolini’s industrial war machine against the spears and obsolete rifles of tribal warriors. To halt Mussolini’s advancing tanks the warriors dug mile-long pits and filled them with hungry lions. For most foreign correspondents, the Abyssinian war was frustrating in the extreme. “I doubt if more than a dozen of us heard a shot fired in anger in the months this most one-sided war lasted,” Monks wrote. It was equally aggravating for news organisations footing the escalating bill. On the first day of the conflict, all 60 correspondents in Addis wanted to set off immediately for the front. “But the Emperor said no.” Monks recalled. “He could not guarantee our safety, he said. We shrugged that off, and replied that we didn’t want safety. Then he said that he wasn’t thinking of safety from the Italians, but safety from his own warriors who, he said – and he smiled as he said it – couldn’t tell any white man from an Italian.” Monks eventually hitched a lift with a camel caravan crossing the Ogaden to British Somaliland in the hope they would skirt close to the battle area. In the end he found himself in Berbera from where he sailed by Arab dhow back to Djibouti. “Still no war for this war correspondent!” he lamented, as the fighting wound down and he departed Abyssinia. That would change soon enough. After addressing the League of Nations in June 1936 the exiled Emperor reputedly made the following prophecy: "It is us today. It will be you tomorrow.” Just over three years later Monks and his colleagues from Addis days were covering World War II.

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