China July 9, 2004

H.E.Tung Chee-hwa
Chief Executive
Hong Kong

H.E. Hu Jintao
President
People@quot;s Republic of China

Your Excellencies:

The members of the Overseas Press Club of America, comprised of more than 600 professional journalists, many with experience in China and Hong Kong, are dismayed and disheartened by your governments’ continuing hostility to freedom of the press.

The latest evidence of this was the resignation on May 19 of Allen Lee from his post as radio host on the popular phone-in show, “Teacup in the Storm,” and from his position as a member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council. He told members of the Council that he quit due to pressure by Beijing officials for his support of democracy on-air. In resigning, Lee said that the Beijing government seeks to limit support for democracy prior to the September legislative elections in which 30 of the 60 members of Hong Kong@quot;s parliament are to be elected by popular vote. Previously, only 20 of the seats were directly elected. Lee is the third Hong Kong radio host to step down within a month, and he has been considered to be the most moderate of the three.

On May 3, Lee@quot;s predecessor, Albert Cheng, resigned his radio show, citing death threats and a suffocating political climate in Hong Kong. In a comparable incident, Wong Yuk-man, also known as Raymond Wong, announced on May 13 that he was taking a temporary break as host of Commercial Radio “Close Encounters of the Political Kind,” saying he was both “physically and mentally tired.” Wong had been a frequent critic of actions by the mainland@quot;s Communist Party.

After these three resignations, the Hong Kong-based, Apple Daily, carried an advertisement signed by 400 Hong Kong academics expressing their “shock and concern,” at the departure of the three radio hosts.

Once again, our organization of professional journalists requests that the governments of Hong Kong and of the Peoples Republic of China honor their previous international commitments to human rights — including the freedom of journalists to practice their profession by providing news reports to the public without intimidating pressures from Government officials.

Respectfully yours,

George Bookman Norman A. Schorr
Freedom of the Press Committee
Tung Chee-hwa
Chief Executive
Central Government Offices
S/F Main Wing
Lower Albert Road, Central
Hong Kong

H.E. Hu Jintao
President
Office of the President
Zhonganahai
Beijing 100017
People@quot;s Republic of China

Wen Jiabao
State Council
Office of the Premier
Zhonganahai
Beijing 100077
People’s Republic of China
Fax: (011.86.10.6) 512-5810

Yang Jiechi
Ambassador of P.R.O.C. to the U.S.A.
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: (202) 328-2582

Ambassador Wang Guangya
Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China
to the United Nations
350 East 35th Street
New York, NY 10016
Fax: (212) 634-7626

Clark T. Randt, Jr.
U.S. Ambassador to China
Embassy of the United States of America
No. 3 Xiu Shui Bei Jie
100600 Beijing
China
Fax: (011.86.10.6) 532-6929

James R. Keith
U.S. Representative to Hong Kong
26 Garden Road, Central
Hong Kong
Fax: (011.852.2) 523-9011