Here's the thing about foreign media and Hong Kong - for years the "real" story was in mainland China. For many China-based correspondents HK was a boring biz city. Its people spoke a form of Chinese they didn't understand and lacked charm. But it was a useful city for RnR 1/

I think a lot of people took for granted just what a unique city of fascinating contradictions Hong Kong was and is and how precious and vulnerable its freedoms were and are. Of what that means in and of itself as well as to the wider world. 2/

It sometimes felt like shouting into a void when we spoke or wrote about "death by a thousand cuts". Too complex, too nuanced, too local. But now those freedoms are disappearing, attacked at turbo-charged pace. #PressFreedom in HK isn't just about local journalists 3/

And today - a police raid on a newspaper, police officers deciding what constitutes "journalistic material", on who gets to attend certain press briefings, a national security unit to review visas for foreign journalists. Whatever else, don't look away 4/4