Lone man takes on giant 'South China Morning Post'

By Edward Neilan

Maverick website monitors lapses in freedom of press in Hong Kong, gearing up for Clinton China visit.

TOKYO (JP): When U.S. President Bill Clinton arrives in Hong Kong at the end of his June trip to China, the chances are he will read or glance at the South China Morning Post, arguably the best English-language newspaper in Asia and as a matter of record the most profitable newspaper in the world.

On the other hand, there is scant chance Clinton will click on the internet website "Not The South China Morning Post" (home.netvitgator.com/"adamspub/index.htm), which has taken on the job of monitoring with stinging satire the state of freedom of the press in Hong Kong since last year's July 1 handover from British colonial rule to Chinese sovereignty.

NTSCMP and its founder, acerbic Briton Dr. George Adams, have ruffled official feathers in Hong Kong. They also have attracted enough internet-wide attention to be counted as "one of the 50 most important international websites" by the Online Journalism Review (www.ojr.org) of the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communications.

Author and classical music critic Adams won notoriety over the past year for tweaking the news judgment of Post editor Jonathan Fenby of whom he wrote "I have come to the conclusion that you are a pro-Peking mouthpiece."

The urbane Fenby, to his everlasting credit, switched from ignoring Adams to engaging him in online debate. Now even top editors at the Post are said to sign-on for the dialog which undoubtedly has helped Adams gain notoriety.

Responding to a recent Adams barb, Fenby complained: "It really would be nice if you would read the paper more closely before firing off your darts or had the decency to admit your mistakes. But I might as well wait until pigs fly over Lantau (an island near Hong Kong where the new Chek Lap Kok airport is located), I suppose."

Adams has had plenty of ammunition to use in criticizing the Post. There was a rash of firings, disappearance of features like the "World of Lily Wong" which referred to ex-Premier Li Peng as the "butcher of Tiananmen," banishment of "dissident" writers and editors like the irrepressible Nury Vittachi, a creeping self-censorship, following of Beijing causes like harsh criticism of the film Seven Years in Tibet the week it opened in Hong Kong, and the hiring of former China Daily editor Feng Xi-liang as a "consultant" at China's behest to sit in a special office next to Fenby's.

Now there is new fodder, as pro-democracy activists Martin Lee and ex-journalist Emily Lau--who have been saying some of the same things as Adams, including criticism of Chief Executive Tung Chee-wha---won convincing victories (May 24) in an election format imposed by Beijing.

This was the first mainland Chinese jurisdiction to hold such extensive elections with a genuine opposition. The model for elections by a Chinese society, it should be noted, is Taiwan. China wants Taiwan to join it without a referendum.

Adams was in Tokyo recently attending a seminar on (what else?) "Press Freedom in Hong Kong." He told me he has been "overwhelmed" by the response to NTSCMP and credits Fenby, inadvertently, with part of the popularity.

The website has had "hits" from every continent. Adams takes as compliments comments like one from the U.S.: "I am really surprised that the PLA (China's People's Liberation Army) hasn't had you rubbed out."

NTSCMP is an example of a burgeoning internet phenomenon: a small, often one-man publisher takes on a respected institution. But like the Matt Drudge Report in the U.S. on the Bill Clinton- Monica Lewinsky whispers, there can be questions about sourcing and veracity.

The Post, founded in 1903, grew up with Hong Kong. It was previously owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch who sold it several years ago to pro-Beijing overseas Chinese Robert Kuok, owner of the luxury Shangri-la Hotel chain.

The paper's circulation is only 120,000 but it frequently carries classified advertising sections of over 100 pages and remains the favored paper of the "business-banking establishment," indicative of Hong Kong's international character. The Post boasts its own highly-praised (among others, by Editor & Publisher magazine of the U.S.) website (www.scmp.com.news) which carries many of the features of the daily paper.

So far there has been no attempt at censorship of his website, Adams said. But his comment came amid reports that China is indeed trying selectively to check the spread of internet access. Cox News Service reported recently "you cannot access the Human Rights in China Web site in Hong Kong: that one is blocked by a Chinese censor's electronic filters."

I think of Dr. George Adams and "Not the South China Morning Post" as kin to the lone Chinese who challenged the column of tanks at Tiananmen Square in June of 1989.

The writer is a Tokyo-based veteran analyst of Northeast Asian affairs.