Hong Kong In-Media

Hong Kong In-Media is an advocacy group for independent media closely associated with the social movements in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and other Asian regions. It originated during the 2003 mass rally against Article 23, which strengthened the Hong Kong government's powers to restrain freedom of speech and association. Most of the founding members were activists, progressive academics, and journalists engaged in social movements and publishing independent magazines during the 1990s. They saw the 2003 confrontation as a turning point in Hong Kong's recent democratic struggles. They decided to set up various alternative media platforms in response to shrinking autonomy and freedom in mainstream corporate media and to the thriving political voices on the Internet.

Hong Kong In-Media's first project was to set up http://inmediahk.net, a local portal website in Chinese, which sought to facilitate public engagement in citizen journalism. It learned from the experience of the Independent Media Centers, Korea's OhmyNews' idea of “citizen reporters” and other innovative independent media practices elsewhere in Asia.

The structure of http://inmediahk.net is formally nonhierarchical in terms of authority, though it maintains an editorial team for daily management. The website users can contribute and publish their stories, commentaries, and videos instantly without editors' approval. Its citizen journalists and media activists are involved in a wide range of local and international issues. They extensively covered the 2005 anti–World Trade Organization (WTO) protest and presented a more complete picture of the anti-WTO organizations than most mainstream media.

They were also first to stir up the “citizen journalism” controversy and its challenge to professional journalism in Hong Kong. In response, some journalists in Hong Kong also criticized Hong Kong In-Media for doing politically biased reports. In recent years, the citizen journalists have actively engaged in the local historical conservation movement, the campaign against censorship, and community movements. http://Inmediahk.net has already become one of the most popular alternative media, particularly in Hong Kong's social and cultural movement issues.

Inspired by global experience in the anti-WTO protests, Hong Kong In-Media additionally developed http://interlocals.net, a cross-border network for [Page 227]media activists and citizen media organizations from different regions to exchange news and information. In early 2009, it published Info-Rhizome: Report on Independent Media in the Chinese-Speaking World, which covered the recent development of independent media in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Malaysia, and Taiwan.

This book was a project intended regularly to update new developments in independent media in these four regions and further extend to other Asian regions in the future. It aimed at setting up an agenda for collaborative research and activism. It has already built a network of independent media workers and researchers in those four Chinese-speaking communities.

Although the initial funds partially came from European foundations, it is largely funded by individual supporters who give small-amount donations (around HK$100) monthly. While many Hong Kong NGOs are funded by government and overseas foundations, Hong Kong In-Media manages to keep a high proportion of individual donations. It sees strong and active civil society as the primary support for independent media over the long term. It attempts to develop a model for small nongovernmental organizations and independent media in Hong Kong and other Chinese communities.

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