Freedom of speech, often defended as a core value in Hong Kong, has been an object of intense struggle through contested and multiple articulations of right and interests at different times. This thesis presents a case study of Citizens’ Radio as a campaign to defend the freedom of speech in the context of increased social activism after 2003. It is argued that the campaign not only embodied acts of civil disobedience that challenged the boundary of legality vs. illegality and legitimacy vs. illegitimacy in defending freedom. In the process, it also developed into an emergent public space that sought to realize the civic values of “equality”, “openness” and “diversity” through autonomous engagement with subaltern groups, which advocated the democratization of values, norms and...[ Read more ]

Freedom of speech, often defended as a core value in Hong Kong, has been an object of intense struggle through contested and multiple articulations of right and interests at different times. This thesis presents a case study of Citizens’ Radio as a campaign to defend the freedom of speech in the context of increased social activism after 2003. It is argued that the campaign not only embodied acts of civil disobedience that challenged the boundary of legality vs. illegality and legitimacy vs. illegitimacy in defending freedom. In the process, it also developed into an emergent public space that sought to realize the civic values of “equality”, “openness” and “diversity” through autonomous engagement with subaltern groups, which advocated the democratization of values, norms and institutions in civil society. Drawing on the literature on the Habermas’s and Fraser’s account on public sphere(s) and Melucci’s idea of everyday life democracy, this thesis examines the ways the two dimensions of the struggle developed and interacted in the process and also the outcomes of the struggle. It concludes by assessing the possibility and limits of an emergent subaltern public sphere arising from the campaign.