Ex-civil Servant Steps Down As RTHK Guest Presenter

Former senior civil servant Rachel Cartland has announced she's stepping down as a guest presenter on an RTHK radio programme, citing concerns over the new national security law.

Cartland, a former assistant director of Social Welfare, told RTHK's Backchat programme on Wednesday she was most concerned about the article against subversion, where it was an offence to undermine the Hong Kong government.

“Now that seems to me to be something that we could be potentially accused of quite often, so either we’re not going to have robust discussions because we’re going to be worried about that, or else we may be doing something illegal," she said.

“And then the government came out, and I hoped that they were going to be very reassuring, but instead one of the first things that was done was to advise people not to say a particular slogan, and then the priority task given were to review books in public libraries and to review books in school libraries, which really isn’t that reassuring.”

On Tuesday, the Hong Kong Journalists Association had urged the government to make clear that journalists won't be prosecuted under the new law for doing regular reports.

The association said many journalists are now practising self-censorship, and the new law has had a chilling effect on the media here.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam has said if the media can give her "a 100 percent guarantee" that they will not commit any offences under the new law, then she can also reciprocate.