Wong wronged
Sir: On 3 June you reported on the termi- nation of my cartoon strip 'The World of Lily Wong' by the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post ('We were reluc- tant to rig elections'). Mr Jonathan Fenby, the paper's new editor, in a letter published in this newspaper on 10 June, took issue with your report. In his letter, he made false statements in justification of my sack- ing. I wish to correct these.
Mr Fenby disputed your report that 'the South China Morning Post kowtowed to Beijing when it dropped the comic strip'. He calls it instead a 'cost-cutting mea- sure'. I should like to point out that, in addition to British correspondents, others in Hong Kong who have concluded from the evidence that the dropping of the strip was purely an act of political censorship include two former editors of the South China Morning Post, a number of former and current journalist employees of the same newspaper, the Hong Kong Journal- ists Association, many prominent mem- bers of Hong Kong's Legislative Council and indeed the editors of just about
every other publication in Hong Ronk not one of whom has terminated a car- toon feature as a cost-cutting measure in recent memory.
Mr Fenby states that the cartoon's price was 'the same as two journalists'. This is false. In fact, I received 50 per cent more than a cub reporter fresh out of polytech- nic. After eight years full-time with the newspaper, I would think that this is not excessive.
Mr Fenby goes on to imply that 'Lily Wong' was little missed, claiming that he has received 'fewer than a dozen letters' about the strip's demise. This is interesting. First reports were of 'dozens of letters'. Then his editor-in-chief reported 'just over twenty'. And now Fenby's 'fewer than a dozen'. As time goes on, the numbers shrink. Reminds me of Philippine election results.
Finally, I must point out an irony: while Mr Fenby is availing himself of freedom of the press in Great Britain, and is seeing his letters about 'Lily Wong' published here and in other newspapers, he has declined to print in the South China Morning Post a sin- gle one of the 'fewer than a dozen' letters about the disappearance of my cartoon strip. Self-censorship, or merely hypocrisy, Mr Fenby?
Larry Feign
GPO Box 6086, Hong Kong
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