1. Hong Kong’s “Friday” news project is a commie plot from Beijing, right?
Actually, no. It’s a project set up by Hong Kong people who think our city and our country deserve fairer news coverage.
2. But it’s bankrolled by the commies in Beijing, right?
No.
3. So go on, then, we dare you to reveal all about its assets and financing, etc.
Okay. This group’s main asset without a doubt is its readers – they send scores of pieces of information and suggestions to us every day, and even entire news features which we print. All of which come at no cost. For example, we have a number of excellent features written by law professors. (Have a read. Here are some pieces from Richard Cullen and Grenville Cross.)
4. But the commies pay for the office and overheads, right?
We have no office or overheads. We tried working from one for a while but realized we didn’t need it.
5. Okay, then, but who pays the staff?
We don’t really have staff. Founder-director Herman Hu (see pic at the top) is unpaid, as are most contributors. The editor and accountant work part time. The editor writes books, and the accountant just works a few hours.
6. But the journalists must be paid, right?
Managing editor Nury Vittachi and contributors such as Phill Hynes and Aidan Jonah generously work at below market rates because they believe in the project.
7. Some people say on social media that you are bankrolled by a Beijing billionaire.
Yeah, we saw that! Not true. Because our content is free or inexpensive, our budget is small, and the generosity of the Hu family and other Hong Kong entrepreneurs covers our content production and our annual forum. Big thanks!
The Hu family are good Hong Kong people who have done incredible amounts of public service in the city for decades. This meant that they worked with the British government until 1997 and with the Chinese government after 1997.
Just as they were proud to represent Hong Kong people for the British government in the old days, they are also proud to represent Hong Kong people for the Chinese government. Like a number of other people in this city, Herman Hu Shao-ming is a Hong Kong Deputy to the National People’s Congress.
When the “Beijing billionaire” allegation was circulated, Friday editor Nury Vittachi pointed out that it seems a bit racist that certain people think it’s perfectly fine for Hong Kong people to work closely with officials outside the city if they are white westerners but not if they are non-white people!
8. So, if the Friday project is really not a project of the government in Beijing, is it a project of the Hong Kong government?
No, it’s not a government project in any way. But we try to maintain good relations with everyone. So our annual forum attracts big names in government as well as academics and business leaders.
9. Is Friday group news censored? Do people in Beijing or Hong Kong inspect the content before it goes out?
No. It couldn’t be. We do a fair amount of breaking news, so clearly there’s no time for such a process. And our annual forum too is totally uncensored. Panelists say whatever they like, and it is broadcast live.
10. How did it start?
After the social unrest of 2019, both Herman Hu and Nury Vittachi were looking for a way to tell the story of Hong Kong in a fairer way. But it wasn’t until a mutual friend introduced them to each other in 2021 that the Friday project was born. The parent company name was “Friday Culture” because Friday has positive associations (both agreed there was too much negativity about), and “culture” to show the new venture was not a newspaper but would have a broader focus.
11. So that’s why you do culture stuff as well as news?
Yes. Founder Herman Hu wants to make it easy to learn about Hong Kong culture and Mainland Chinese culture, so the Fridayeveryday website has many articles about culture, including history, arts, sports, museums and so on.
Herman’s father Hu fa-kuang, who died in 2022, was an absolute legend in Hong Kong. He was a key player in the setting up of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Hong Kong Ballet, the Hong Kong Dance Company, and the Hong Kong Drama Company. He then pushed for the founding of the Hong Kong Arts Festival and the Hong Kong Asian Arts Festival too, eventually getting all the above projects off the ground.
You can read the story of this Hong Kong icon here.
12. But you can’t deny that the Friday project is a pro-China news group, like China Daily, right?
No, it’s not like Chinese government media at all. The Friday outlets (which include a website, a YouTube channel, lively social media pages, live forums on stage, and occasional TV shows) are very different. Just take a look – we do a lot of humor, cartoons, opinion columns, and a range of journalistic material from investigative reports to video shorts. Chinese government media is not known for being jokey and sarcastic.
13. So are you saying that the Friday project is just another private, impartial media outlet, like its western equivalents?
Actually, no. It’s not like a western news outlet and doesn’t want to be one, says editor Nury Vittachi. This is a soapbox topic for him, so we’ll let him answer it:
Nury Vittachi writes:
Clearly there’s a difference between the general principles of standard western journalism (“If it bleeds, it leads”) and the equivalent in Asia, which has a different feel: calmer, less frenetic, and more reflective. In its idealized form, I think it can be seen as “Zen Journalism”. That’s what we’re aiming to create.
Zen journalism is more low key, often has a pedagogic element, and is more careful about what it prints. Also, it is more socially aware of avoiding polarization (in contrast to western journalism which has to foster polarization, because it is click-dependent). Asian journalism is subtler, and makes its points in a more roundabout way. It will sometimes dip into paradoxical storytelling, in the same way zen koans deliver thoughtful teaching through humor.
THE FREE SPEECH ISSUE
Also, the west’s almost religious fervor about “free speech absolutism” doesn’t naturally fit into Asian journalism at all.
That’s because Asians are more cohesive as a group, and more respectful of elders. Western journalists often tell us that the freedom to harshly criticize their elders is of paramount importance, whereas Asians don’t even put that into their top ten important things about the media.
As a result, Asian journalism is less clickbaity, less commercialized, less frenetic, less sexploitative, and—most importantly, less inclined to over-politicize issues in ways that are harmful to society and which polarize their readership.
And the result? It’s easy to see how societies of China and Japan, with their less provocative media, are calmer and more cohesive than places with a more rowdy media, like the US or India. I realize this is a circular process. The British have a saying: “A society gets the journalism it deserves.”
It’s important to realize that free speech is not binary (“the west has it, the east doesn’t”). All societies have things which cannot be published. It’s really a gradient, with few countries being at either extreme. Yet in general, Asian journalism is more heavily moderated, sometimes annoyingly so for people used to, say, the lively British tabloids, or the US National Inquirer.
GOOD FOR SOCIETY?
And remember, western journalism talks a good game about truth and values, but is driven by profit—unless you make people angry, you don’t get enough clicks to survive. Unfortunately, this means it is often literally anger-driven.
Asia’s more moderated journalism is much more like a group of people trying to achieve a positive civic act: delivering information with an awareness that information and the way it is delivered needs to be positive for society.
The result is journalism that is less dramatic than eye-grabbing western journalism, and is sometimes annoyingly censored, and which is definitely less profitable from a purely capitalist viewpoint.
But in the long run, it may have more value for society. That appears to be clear in comparing the growth of heavily moderated China over the past half century, with the growth of freewheeling, polarized India. Discuss.
More questions? Best bet for an answer is to write to Nury Vittachi via one of his social media pages. His X page is here.