Vice-President Li Yuanchao told members of a Hong Kong media delegation in Beijing on Thursday he hopes the Hong Kong press will help protect "One Country, Two Systems" and maintain the city's prosperity and stability in the overall interest of local society as well as the nation.

He also mentioned the importance of objective, fair and balanced treatment of news by the Hong Kong media on issues of common concern.

Li's comments would, no doubt, get on some people's nerves here and evoke hostile reaction in the name of press freedom. It's understandable and expected that certain media entities are bent on using their power as they please against anything the central government does and says, and, out of political necessity, will seize the opportunity to mount another verbal offensive. But, they cannot deny the fact that Li's words about media responsibility and journalistic principles are correct and apply everywhere.

Some politically biased parties will always find one way or another to attack the central authorities by quoting them out of context and misinterpreting their comments to support their own preconceived notions. Such acts constitute a gross assault on established rules of journalistic conduct if they come from media entities, and cannot be justified no matter who or what they are aimed at. To criticize for criticism's sake is not healthy or "cool", especially when it is done out of political bias.

It's also quite common in Hong Kong for people to accuse central government officials of infringing upon freedom of speech whenever they talk about the press, regardless of what they say and under what circumstances. It seems some local "opinion leaders" have developed a habit of assuming the public is incapable of telling right from wrong simply because they've already made the conclusion. And they want their readers and viewers to never question their intentions even if they mean to sow hatred between locals and mainlanders to serve their own interests.

Vice-President Li was meeting with high-level executives of some Hong Kong-based media companies when he expressed his views. There's nothing but goodwill for Hong Kong from his words. If Beijing bashers think they can find anything to use against the central government by "reading between the lines", they will only expose themselves as ill-motivated propagandists who have no respect for journalistic ethics.

Freedom of speech is a form of power and power comes with responsibilities. It's safe to say no one will ever dispute this statement, but not all can guarantee their responsibilities are what the public expects of them. It all comes down to whose best interest the press works to serve. That is a judgment only the public is qualified to make, not the media themselves.

(HK Edition 04/25/2014 page9)