While in Canada a campaign is underway to preserve free speech by helping a radio-station in its fight with a ruthless regulator ready to yank its license away, in Hong Kong Albert Cheng seems to finally have been ditched by his former radio employers.

For the uninitiated, Cheng once hosted Hong Kong’s most popular radio show, Teacup in a Storm which had become a prominent vehicle of pro-democracy and anti-Hong Kong government comment. However Cheng resigned from the role earlier this year after receiving numerous unanimous threats. He did so with good reason: in August 1998 he was attacked by chopper-wielding thugs and left in a pool of blood in front of the radio station where he was due to run another episode of Teacup, the culprits of course were never apprehended. It was a miracle Cheng survived and he was brave enough to return to the airwaves in the wake of this vile attack on his life arguing that he could simply not give in to violence. It has been impossible to prove a direct link between the attack and continued threats and Beijing’s attempts to stifle the free press in Hong Kong, but the frequency and targets have fueled suspicion with fingers pointing in one very clear direction.

Albert Cheng has returned to the front and has announced he will stand as a candidate in Hong Kong’s legislative elections scheduled for September. These are contentious elections by their very nature since the vote is rigged in such a way that the real democrats can participate and win seats but never capture a workable majority. As a wealthy man with a foreign passport (that he is willing to renounce to participate in the election) Cheng’s stand is commendable, he could easily pack up his bags and play golf in Canada for the rest of his life. But, he’s willing to give his vast Teacup audience a voice that they can no longer hear on Hong Kong’s airwaves in order to bring the battle a little closer to Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing establishment.