ABSTRACT
Eighteen months after Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule, dire predictions of the demise of press freedom in this former British colony have not materialized. The local media have remained as freewheeling and rambunctious as they were in the years leading to the handover on July 1, 1997. Hong Kong's flamboyant talk radio host, Albert Cheng, who regularly blasted Chinese officials and mishaps of the local government, was briefly silenced by a brutal attack by assailants with meat cleavers, not by the Chinese government. Under Chinese law, reporters are banned from working in China unless they have been granted permission: they must apply for the privilege each time they want to enter China to conduct reporting duties. At the close of 1998, the media in Hong Kong were mired in scandals and accusations. The Hong Kong media can ill afford to be small-minded, parochial or corrupt.
