HONG KONG: The sudden departure of three of Hong Kong's top talk-radio DJs, famous for their outspoken views on mainland China, has prompted speculation of a crack-down on media freedoms in the former British colony and sparked fears of creeping political intolerance.
Albert Cheng's morning talk radio show, Teacup in a Storm, was well known for its uncompromising verbal attacks on the territory's regional government.
The Hong Kong shock jock quit suddenly this month, claiming his office had been splashed with red paint and he had received anonymous threats of physical violence.
"The current political environment is suffocating," Mr Cheng said just before he turned off his microphone and headed to Europe on extended leave.
"Besides receiving threats of violence, some true friends have convinced me that ... I should not continue with the programme. The increasing pressure I've been feeling physically and psychologically has taken me to the brink of a breakdown." His successor, Allan Lee, quit after just two weeks on the job, saying his friends had severed ties with him because of his position.
A third radio DJ, Raymond Wong, also a vocal critic of the mainland government, didn't show up for his evening programme, Close Encounter of the Political Kind, this month because he had already left town. He claims he was assaulted by suspected Triad criminal gang members and his shop smeared with red paint.
"I am physically and psychologically exhausted," was Mr Wong's sign-off.
The disc jockeys' resignations came soon after Beijing's controversial decision to rule out universal suffrage for Hong Kong in 2007, crushing hopes in the territory for a speedy move towards more democracy.
Leading democrats in Hong Kong are worried about threats to the territory's promised "50 years, no change" system, which was introduced after the handover to China and which gives the former British colony wide-ranging autonomy.
Amnesty International has expressed grave concerns about the resignations.
Christine Loh, a political analyst in Hong Kong, reckons the radio hosts were silenced because they were daily popular critics of the government and were instrumental in rallying people to the July 1st demonstrations last year, where half a million people marched against a controversial anti-subversion bill.
The rally forced the unpopular chief executive Mr Tung Chee-hwa to withdraw the proposal, which had been introduced to please Beijing.
"These events present a frightening picture of Hong Kong," says Ms Loh, who reckons the clampdown is part of a process to turn up the pressure on pro-democracy parties ahead of Legislative Council elections on September 12th.
One businessman wrote to her to say he had been instructed by his boss to vote for pro-Beijing candidates.
"To make sure I have done that, he told me to take pictures of my completed ballot sheet with my mobile-phone camera," said the businessman.
A central government spokesman quoted on the Xinhua official news agency said Beijing was committed to protecting free speech in Hong Kong.
"We do not see any tightening in the freedom of expression and of the press," said the unnamed spokesman.