Gov’t refutes US report on Macau’s alleged increased censorship
The SAR government expressed its opposition to content relating to Macau in the “2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices”, recently issued by the United States Department of State.
According to a statement issued by local authorities, the report “has an axe to grind, and contains baseless commentary, smearing the actual human-rights conditions in Macau.”
“It is a brutal attempt to intervene in Macau’s internal affairs and China’s domestic affairs,” it added.
The government noted that the central government is committed to law-based governance in Macau. Under such protections, “MSAR residents enjoy extensive rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, and the Basic Law of Macau.”
According to the US report, “there were reports of increased censorship, especially on topics related to the SAR’s authorities.”
US authorities recalled that in October 2021, the prodemocracy website Macau Concealer, which regularly published satirical news, suspended operations, citing a worsened political landscape and budgetary constraints.
“The SAR imposed restrictions on press freedom and urged media to be patriotic,” the report said.
It also recalled that back in July, the Macau Journalists Association issued a statement accusing government officials of “‘guiding’ reporters on the direction of questions in advance of a regular pandemic press conference, repeatedly interrupting reporters, and snatching the microphone away from reporters.”
Under the report’s “Freedom of Peaceful Assembly” section, the report noted that in Macau, the Tiananmen Square commemoration organizer in the SAR, the Union for Democratic Development, represented by former lawmakers Sunny Au and Antonio Ng, decided not to hold a June 4 vigil, making this the first year without a public or virtual Tiananmen candlelight vigil in the SAR since 1990.
“The organizers reportedly said the group cancelled the event due to fear of prosecution,” the report read.
Also, according to the report, the law did not fully protect members of racial or ethnic minority groups against violence and discrimination.
The authorities were referring to the SAR’s order to all Filipino nationals to take a daily Covid-19 test – back in July 2022 – on top of multiple rounds of citywide testing adopted previously, stating Filipinos accounted for 9.5% of the city’s total Covid-19 cases and suggesting they might be hidden sources of infection.
Meanwhile, the local government stressed that the “historic development achievements in Macau cannot be discredited.”
“With the support from the central government, the MSAR will continue to give full play to the city’s advantages, integrate intensively into overall national development, and contribute fresh achievements for the successful and steady implementation of the ‘One country, two systems’ principle,” the local government concluded. Staff Reporter
