A Chinese journalist hailed as a national hero after being assaulted by anti-government protesters at Hong Kong airport last month has been awarded 100,000 yuan ($20,700) for his "outstanding performance" covering the protests.

Key points: Hong Kong's press freedom ranking fell from 18 in 2002 to 73 in 2019, according to RSF

Hong Kong's press freedom ranking fell from 18 in 2002 to 73 in 2019, according to RSF More than half of Hong Kong's media owners are members of mainland political bodies

More than half of Hong Kong's media owners are members of mainland political bodies Journalists have also been injured during the clashes between police and protesters

Fu Guohao, from the Chinese nationalist tabloid Global Times, was praised by Chinese state media for his bravery after reportedly shouting "I support the Hong Kong police, you can hit me now" when he was surrounded and tied up by a mob of protesters on August 13 when pro-democracy protests over the now-withdrawn extradition bill descended into chaos.

Global Times reporter Fu Guohao, centre, received 100,000 yuan for his Hong Kong protest coverage. ( Weibo )

The Times said Fu was attacked by "radical protesters" after they went through his bag and found a T-shirt printed with the logo "I Love Hong Kong Police", and cited Chinese authorities as saying the violence was "no different from the savage act of terrorists".

However Hong Kong Free Press (HKPF) had a different take on the airport incident, saying Fu was "accosted" after he was seen taking close-up photos of protesters but refused to show his press credentials.

The competing narratives are just one example of the information war being waged around the unrest in Hong Kong, where Beijing's mainland-based state media outlets continue to clash fiercely with Hong Kong's legally-protected free press, while journalists become collateral damage in the process.

It comes as media watch groups warn the press freedom Hong Kong inherited from British rule is falling to its lowest levels in history amid fears Beijing is attempting to undermine democracy in the Special Administrative Region since it was handed over in 1997 and granted high degrees of autonomy until 2047 under the One Country, Two Systems policy.

The clashes demonstrate the different roles of media in two different societies, and dissecting the coverage and portrayals of the ongoing situation highlights the issues at the core of the matter tearing Hong Kong apart.

'There is no black and white in this story'

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Yonden Lhatoo, chief news editor at the South China Morning Post (SCMP), told the ABC that Hong Kong journalists have been put in "a very awkward position" because the territory is part of China but many of the protest narratives relate to being anti-China, rethinking sovereignty, and even talks of independence.

"It's a tough time to be a journalist [here], but it's also a great time to be a journalist in terms of what you get to cover — it's a momentous event," he said.

Lhatoo said while the Western media portrayed in their reporting an "evil Beijing Communist regime" with Hongkongers struggling for their freedoms and rights, mainland media painted the protesters as "rioters and terrorists".

Tom Grundy, editor-in-chief of Hong Kong Free Press, described the competing narratives as "two entirely different worlds" like "parallel universes".

Lhatoo added that "there is no black and white in this whole story" maintaining that it was important to look at both the genuine grievances driving Hongkongers onto the streets, but also "not to gloss over the violence, anarchy and the vandalism that's going on".

"It's a very difficult balancing act," he said.

While the SCMP maintains that it strives to be balanced, its acquisition by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2015 sparked concerns about whether its editorial independence would be compromised — the SCMP was once owned by Newscorp's Rupert Murdoch when the British still controlled Hong Kong.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 4 minutes 23 seconds 4 m 23 s Yonden Lhatoo said it was "a tough time to be a journalist" in Hong Kong.

Lhatoo said while Alibaba's founder Jack Ma — who stepped down as chairman earlier this month — "loves the newspaper", he also gave the SCMP "complete editorial freedom".

"If you look at our entire [Hong Kong] protest coverage, not only is it the most comprehensive, we look at all the nuances," he said.

"I always talk to people who talk about whether we are balanced enough, whether we are too pro-China ... or whether we're too pro-protests, we get criticism both ways."

The ABC approached Chinese state media, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Alibaba for comment, but they did not respond by publication time.

Hong Kong's gradual decline on World Press Freedom Index

Reporters Without Borders ranks Hong Kong's press freedom as 73. ( Reporters Without Borders/GFX by Jarrod Fankhauser )

The South China Morning Post is just one of several Hong Kong media outlets that are owned by Chinese companies.

According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) more than half of Hong Kong's media owners, most of whom have major business interests in mainland China, are also members of political bodies on the mainland, such as the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

"The Chinese Communist Party's Liaison Office in Hong Kong controls — partly or entirely — several media outlets in the territory including two daily newspapers, Tao Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po," RSF said in its latest annual report.

The media watch dog's World Press Freedom Index, which ranks countries based on its assessment of the country's press conditions in the previous year, ranked Hong Kong 73 out of 179 countries in 2019 compared with 18 in 2002.

The gradual decline in rankings have typically coincided with Beijing's attempts to challenge democracy in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region — in 2003, the ranking dropped to 56 after moves to enact a legal article seen as anti-subversive saw half a million people descend on Victoria Park in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's press freedom ranking fell to 70 for the first time in 2015, just after electoral reforms saw the city's Admiralty district shut down in what was dubbed the Umbrella Revolution.

The city's index is ever-inching closer to China which is among the worst in the world for press freedom with a ranking of 177.

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Nonetheless, RSF said there was resistance which was led by a handful of independent online media such as Citizen News, The Initium, Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) and InMedia.

Since the staff at HKFP are Hongkongers, Grundy said they had to be very disciplined to maintain their neutrality, objectivity and impartiality.

Lhatoo added it was "perfectly understandable" for young, idealistic people in the city — including reporters — to have sympathy for the protest movement.

"It's the fact that this movement is all pervasive, it's everywhere — the person who serves you coffee, the person who serves you at your hotel … to journalists, to professionals in the government," he said.

"We've had customs officers being arrested, immigration officers being arrested [for] taking part in these protests."

Journalists covering the Hong Kong protests have also suffered from tear gas and pepper spray. ( Reuters: Kai Pfaffenbach )

And no matter who they're reporting for, being a journalist on the frontline is increasingly difficult.

"As we're on the front lines a lot of the time, we do get blowback. I've had two reporters of the four of us, hospitalised in as many weeks with a face full of pepper spray, or affected by tear spray from water cannons — we've all been affected," he said.

"Each day we're going to work carrying safety gear, which is just normalised now after [months] of protests."



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Hong Kong police strongly denied responsibility for causing the woman's injury during a clash in Tsim Sha Tsui. ( Reuters: Issei Kato )

Despite the proliferated use of eye protection and gas masks, a young woman almost lost her right eye last month when police reportedly fired an apparent bean bag round at her face during a clash in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon.

Hong Kong Free Press said the woman — identified only as 'K' — "has since become a symbol of alleged police violence during the city's pro-democracy protests", and noted in a separate report on the incident that according to police rules, bean bag rounds should not be shot towards someone's head — only at the body or limbs.

But Global Times quoted Hong Kong police strongly denying police responsibility for the incident, saying there is no evidence showing that police injured the woman and cited an anonymous former senior police officer as saying her location was "not within the scope of the police shooting."

"Unless the bullet turned [around] by itself, then the bullet could not have injured the female."

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A surge in propaganda from Chinese state outlets has also seen Xinhua News Agency comparing protesters to cockroaches, while broadcaster CCTV used the Holocaust poem "First They Came" to liken the protesters to Nazis.

Chinese state media People's Daily also attempted to galvanise support for Hong Kong authorities on Chinese social media Weibo by turning what aforementioned Global Times journalist Fu Guohao said before he was assaulted at the airport — "I support Hong Kong police, you can hit me now" — into a meme.

The slogan written in Chinese characters, accompanied by the comment "What a shame for Hong Kong", was shared more than 100,000 times on Chinese social platform Weibo, including by Chinese-American actress Liu Yifei, who is set to play the heroine of Disney's live-action movie Mulan.

It prompted Twitter users to lash out at the high-profile actress for supporting the Hong Kong police and called for a boycott of the movie set to be released next year.

Meanwhile last weekend, Fu and his colleagues were awarded for their "outstanding performance" in the reporting of Hong Kong protests, with Fu receiving "the highest award" of $20,700, Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin said on Weibo.

As a result, trust in media outlets is wearing thin on news consumers who are increasingly turning to live streaming and encrypted platforms like Telegram to seek out the truth for themselves.

People's Daily's meme: "I support the Hong Kong police, you can hit me now". ( Weibo )

But there are fears the Government could crack down on media freedom even further when the media spotlight shifts off Hong Kong, and when some of the unrest eases.

"That's when I think we're going to see trouble because China will want to ensure protests like this never happen again," Grundy told the ABC.

"And if we want proof of that, we just need to look at the aftermath of the 2014 Umbrella Movement: democratically-elected politicians were ousted from the legislature, a political party was banned, a Western journalist was thrown out, people were barred from standing for election.

"And I think after these protests, we're going to see some elements of surveillance, a rollout of CCTV in the name of public safety and national security.

"It's still unclear what exactly the Government or Beijing will do in the coming months, let alone year or two, to get a grip of these kinds of protests."

Additional reporting by Bang Xiao