REPORTER:  David O’Shea

Sunday's demonstration drew thousands of pro-democracy supporters on to the streets. And their message was clear. The protesters weren't fazed by pro-Beijing supporters.

PROTESTERS (Translation):  Go home!  Go back to the mainland.

The marchers were determined to commemorate the 1989 uprising. The revolt shook China's leadership to the core. And the massacre that followed showed they would not tolerate dissent. The tank man's defiance was flashed around the world. But he was taken away, never to be seen again. Today his memory lives on. At the new Tiananmen museum, Salil Shetty, the secretary-general of Amnesty International is on hand as the 25th anniversary draws near.

SALIL SHETTY, SECRETARY GENERAL, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL:  The Chinese government you know, they are trying to … they're not allowing any form of conversation, debate, in fact they're trying to hide the memories.

If Beijing had its way, this small museum would not exist, but Hong Kong still maintains its autonomy. Across the border there's no such freedom.

SALIL SHETTY:  What we have seen in the past few months is very worrying. We've had a series of key activists, key leaders who have been arrested who are linked somehow to the Tiananmen Square memorial, you know, the whole process of remembering the 25th anniversary, but unfortunately they have not even stopped at that. We have seen a much wider crackdown.

The museum was established by democracy activist and Member of Parliament, Lee Cheuk Yan. After taking money into the democracy movement in 1989 he was banned from travelling to China and he says he's being closely watched.

LEE CHEUK YAN:  Oh, yeah of course. This is a very usual thing for me. All my phones are bugged. My emails get hacked regularly and of course we are very closely monitored by the Chinese Government because of our movement in the pro-democracy movement in China and also our involvement in Hong Kong's fight for democracy.

The museum can't advertise on the mainland but many of its visitors are from there and worked out a way to get the message out and beat the internet censorship.

LEE CHEUK YAN:  They avoid the June 4th and they call it the May 35th Museum and it is a very clever way of – you know – avoiding the ban by the words. So it is a very clever way to advertise for us.

REPORTER:  What is the experience for a mainland Chinese person who visits the museum?

LEE CHEUK YAN:  Many of them do not know what happened, especially the younger generation. Those who are the older ones, they know what happened but many of them are not from Beijing, so they never really know what happened in Beijing. And they're shocked by learning what happened.

The museum is tucked away on this street. There were protests on opening day in April from a pro-Beijing group, calling themselves ‘June 4th Truth.’ And the spokesman, Arthur Lee, is no fan.

ARUTHER LEE (Translation):  Basically, in our view we classify Lee Cheuk Yan as a cheater. We think the June 4th Incident is a tool in his hands. He intends to use this tool to overthrow the current Chinese government.

But Mr Lee says their protest reflects a growing concern for Hong Kong.

LEE CHEUK YAN:  When you look at Hong Kong, you can feel an atmosphere of very much people want to please China, especially if you have monetary interests in pleasing China. So the self-censorship arises very much from self-interest - say businessmen - they are all pro-China. This gradual strangling of the freedom that we have - When you look at the press, it is really very worrying. If you don't have the freedom of press, you don't have the freedom of expression and then when you look at the press they are all belonging to some tycoons and those tycoons - businessmen – their business is in China, not Hong Kong. And the future for them is in China.

In Beijing in 1989, students fought for democracy and free speech. Given Mr Lee’s comments about self-censorship, I went to the university to see what Hong Kong students had to say.

REPORTER:  Are you worried about freedom of speech in the future in Hong Kong?

STUDENT:  Yes we are.

REPORTER:  Why?

STUDENT:  We can't talk about many serious things on the internet anymore. So I think it is very important and a serious problem.

STUDENT 2:  When I look over the newspapers there is some sort of censorship, it is very shocking for us as Hong Kong people that freedom of expression is being eroded and eroded so rapidly.

REPORTER:  Do you feel that you're completely free to say whatever you want in Hong Kong?

GIRL:  Now I think yes. But I can't say in the future, maybe this camera or this video – some people will see it in China and then they will find me and I will be …dangerous.

REPORTER:  But, is it a real concern, or are you just joking?

GIRL:   50/50 yeah!

In bustling Hong Kong, suggestions of censorship or worse are not mere conjecture. This city has long had a thriving free press but it's not just the students who say this democratic space is now under threat. Journalists are still reeling from a savage attack on one of their senior colleagues - Kevin Lau – editor and chief of the Ming Pao Daily, known for its fearless reporting.

C Y LEUNG, HONG KONG CHIEF EXECUTIVE:  Hong Kong is a law-abiding city, that's why we strongly condemn this savage act on Mr Kevin Lau this morning.

The attack in late February brought thousands of media workers onto the street. Their banner read - they can't kill us all. One of the protesters was Claudia Mo who spent over two decades as a journalist. She is now a politician and she knows Kevin Lau well. Today she wants to show me the crime scene.

CLAUDIA MO:  That's OK.

Like many here, she believes the attack was also an assault on press freedom.

CLAUDIA MO:  It is absolutely under threat, the self-censorship is not just creeping in, it is becoming very blatant. I used to be a cautious optimist but now I'm getting more and more pessimistic by the day. With the communist ideology that the Beijing people - the leaders would say that Hong Kong people need to speak our language, adopt our mentality, think the way we do. This place needs to be not exactly brainwashed - they wouldn't use that term – they need to feel more Chinese, communist Chinese. That one is called Eastern Coast.

Kevin Lau finished his regular breakfast here. As he crossed the road, he was brutally hacked by one of two men on a motorbike wielding a meat cleaver.

CLAUDIA MO:  He was attacked over there.

REPORTER:  Where is that?

CLAUDIA MO:  Up here. Exactly here.

Several arrests have been made in the case but no-one knows for sure who was behind the attack on the Ming Pao chief.

CLAUDIA MO:  I went to visit him at the hospital and I asked him if it's got a lot to do with press freedom and things? He replied to me, "It had everything to do with my journalistic work."

He can only now walk because he's wearing a brace. He may still lose his legs. His newspaper had riled many people in power and he was investigating the so-called Princelings, the children of past and present Communist Party leaders who have amassed a fortune and according to Claudia Mo, in the wake of the attack – the message is clear.

CLAUDIA MO:  People might think, "If I'm not obedient enough, I just may get hurt and hurt badly."

REPORTER:  Do you think it is having that effect on local journalists?

CLAUDIA MO:  At least within Ming Pao, that’s for sure. I have heard young journalists from that newsroom saying that they're even terrified at the sight of a motorcycle.

LEE CHEUK YAN (Translation):  Let’s fight to the end. Investigate the massacre.

At Sunday's march, the Tiananmen's Museum Mr Lee continued his determined campaign. He shrugs off criticism that the uprising happened a long time ago and it's now time to move on.

LEE CHEUK YAN:  People say you should look forward, forget the past and China is now improving economically. But when you look at the China economically it may be improving, but then political freedom, democracy, human rights are all in regression. So to remember June 4 is not staying in the past, but it's linking to the future, it's linking to now. And the demand of the students at that time is very relevant today.

Reporter/Camera
DAVID O’SHEA

Producer
GEOFF PARISH

Researcher
MELANIE MORRISON

Translations/Subtitling
KONG WO TANG

Editors
NICK O’BRIEN
DAVID POTTS

Kevin Lau rehabilitation footage courtesy of the Hong Kong Journalists Association