Free press must be impartial

Having been a reporter and sometime editor for more than two decades, I still can't understand what is meant by "editorial freedom", a term frequently cited by Hong Kong reporters in protest against management decisions to kill their stories.

Of course, I have a fair idea what "freedom of the press" implies. Like most people in Hong Kong, I take for granted my "freedom of speech". But any notion I had for "editorial freedom" was snuffed out early in my career when my editor told me that his word on what went into the newspaper was final. He had the mandate from the owners of the newspaper to run it in accordance with a clearly defined set of principles.

I was further told that any reporter who deemed those principles unacceptable could exercise his or her freedom to walk. We journalists are supposed to be professionals. In our world, there are only good stories and bad stories.