00:00Let's bring in for analysis, comment and his thoughts, someone whose thoughts really do count from reporters, some frontiers of reporters without borders, Thibaut Bruton.
00:11Thibaut, great to have you on France 24. We always appreciate your time.
00:14This is an important story to you. I know your reaction then to this sentence handed down to Jimmy Lai.
00:20This sentence given to a 78-year-old man of 20 years in prison is, in effect, a death sentence.
00:32It is also a death sentence for press room in Hong Kong.
00:36And I think it is important that, you know, the news cycle stops for a minute to realize what's happening.
00:42The promises of the handover to China have been totally lost on the way.
00:49And what's happening is that there is a normalization and takeover of Hong Kong.
00:55And everybody that wants to tell stories and believe in myths can still believe that Hong Kong is a democracy.
01:02But tonight we know for sure that one of the names that embodies civic liberties in Hong Kong is sentenced harshly.
01:12And it's a persecution against a man that just believed in freedom.
01:15So China, sorry, I should say Hong Kong, but you've completely identified who's behind this,
01:21says that Jimmy Lai's work was sedition or treason.
01:26What is your interpretation of what his work was about, Thibaut?
01:29So Jimmy Lai is the most famous media owner in Hong Kong.
01:36He built Apple Daily in 1995.
01:39It has been a media very dear to the heart of Hong Kongers.
01:43And when it closed down in 2021 under pressure from the authorities,
01:49you have to imagine that over a million people in Hong Kong bought a copy as a souvenir,
01:54as a testimony of their support to a free press.
01:58So what the Communist Party and the Hong Kong court is saying is absolutely without any relation to what is actually the heart of the matter.
02:10Jimmy Lai has been an outspoken defender of journalism, of a free press.
02:14He believed in democracy.
02:16He always thought, having escaped from mainland China,
02:20that the Communist Party was trying to impose its rule over the administrative region.
02:25And now he's paying the high price for that.
02:29Thibaut, you've identified there are two aspects of this story.
02:32Clearly, the human side of this, what this kind of sentence means to someone of Jimmy Lai's age.
02:38And of course, the impact that has on him and his family, but also the press freedom allegation,
02:43the freedom of the media to report and to basically publish what is investigated and discovered to be the truth.
02:51Those two things going side by side.
02:55Is there anything, for instance, that France can do to help the situation, put diplomatic pressure on China in some way?
03:03Well, I'm in London today in the Frontline Club,
03:06which is a club, a place famous for its support to freedom activists and to journalists in danger.
03:13And I was earlier in Parliament talking to influential members of Parliament in order to get stronger statements from the British authorities,
03:24because it is sometimes forgotten, but the only passport that Jimmy Lai holds is a British passport.
03:31So I think the United Kingdom has a big role to play.
03:34We also have seen and heard repeated statements from Donald Trump voicing support to Jimmy Lai.
03:41Donald Trump is expected to go to the People's Republic of China in April, and we also want him to raise the question.
03:50And last but not least, indeed, Jimmy Lai has ties to France.
03:55He's been rewarded by several medals.
03:58He has a residence in France, part of his family is living there.
04:03And it's very important that all the countries that can play a role, either publicly or behind the doors, do play a role.
04:11Because what we fear is the repetition of what we've seen with Lu Xiaobo, the Chinese Nobel Peace Prize that was, you know, in full light and was, you know, killed in jail.
04:24I mean, he died of a cancer because of a lack of treatment.
04:27And that's precisely what we fear for Jimmy Lai.
04:30This 70-year-old man should be released on humanitarian grounds.
04:35And every European nation and the United States of America should pressure the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities to get him out.
04:43What has been qualified as sedition or treason to the eyes of someone from your perspective, and I suspect from my perspective, would be regarded as basically solid journalism.
04:55And that's one of the problems, of course, that your organization, Reporters Without Borders, constantly highlights when regimes put that kind of pressure on the news and on the news reporters, on the journalists, on the ground.
05:06What kind of reception did you have from the MPs?
05:08You mentioned you've been to Parliament in London.
05:11You've spoken to MPs about the situation.
05:14Do you get a sense that they recognize the urgency of what needs to be done?
05:18I think so, and I would hope in a cross-partisan, trans-partisan fashion.
05:25What is clear is that Keir Starmer had been reluctant in the early days to engage in the Jimmy Lai case.
05:34He promised to raise it during his last visit to the People's Republic of China.
05:40And what we have to acknowledge is that there has been little result.
05:44So there were strong questions in Parliament to the government in order to make sure that everything was, you know, taken care of, everything was undertaken in order to reach the only goal that matters, which is to save Jimmy Lai from a death sentence.
06:04Thibaut Boutin, thank you very much indeed, as always, for joining us here in France 24.
06:07We appreciate your time and we appreciate the work that your organization, Reporters Without Borders, does to maintain the free voice of journalists across the world.
06:17Thibaut Boutin reporting, or rather, joining us from the Frontline Club there in London.
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