Daily Lessons from Life 13 September 2009

"HK journalists protest against beatings of reporters - Sun, Sep 13, 2009 AFP

HONG KONG, CHINA - Hundreds of journalists protested in Hong Kong on Sunday over alleged police brutality towards three of their colleagues covering syringe attacks in China's restive Xinjiang region.

Around 700 people, wearing black and holding placards, held a march to call on the Xinjiang government to apologise to the reporters and demanded Beijing move to stop media repression.

On September 4, TVB reporter Lam Tsz-ho, his cameraman Lau Wing-chuen, and Now TV cameraman Lam Chun-wai were reportedly tied up, beaten and detained by police while covering protests in Urumqi that erupted after a spate of needle attacks in the city.

At a press conference a few days after the incident, Xinjiang government spokeswoman Hou Hanmin voiced regret but blamed journalists for inciting unrest.

Mak Yin-ting, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), said media workers were angry over the "outrageous and blatantly false" allegations against the journalists.

"This is a violent trampling on press freedom," she said.

"It is not a single incident. Even last year, lots of our journalists were beaten while reporting in China. The situation is getting worse now."


The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong, which co-organised the protest, said Beijing should conduct a full and impartial investigation into the affair and publish an uncensored report of its findings.

"It is the first time the entire spectrum of the Hong Kong society, including senior government officials and National People's Congress delegates, have condemned such treatment of reporters," the club's president Tom Mitchell told AFP.


"I think, as a result, the Central Government will take notice."

Local delegates to the National People's Congress have urged Beijing to investigate the matter.

Hong Kong, which was returned to Chinese rule in 1997, continues to regard freedom of the press as a cornerstone of society. --AFP"

This is an interesting report. Hong Kong, being part of PRC, is not like any other parts of PRC. It is right to insist on getting treated right in PRC when their media workers worked there.

Lessons for me are:

1. when the master declared a '1 country 2 systems' commitment, it has to work hard to ensure that it keeps the promise. Otherwise, it will lose credibility with its people and the international community as well;

2. it is difficult and challenging to deal with the 'free press'. At the same time, with a little bit of savvy, no bad press need to be generated when its security forces deal with media workers, be they from Hong Kong or any other countries or territories. Brutality by security forces against civilians cannot be tolerated by the authority. So, if they have a drill to handle 'undesirable' footage from being filmed and broadcast, all they have to do is to set the rules that they have the right to confiscate any materials deemed in danger to public security and safety, without resorting to violence!;

3. the pursuit of press freedom will be complicated by the Hong Kong folks as it is part of PRC. In many cases, there were already a lot of 'give and take' in reporting in PRC. As long as PRC is not ready to have more press freedom, Hong Kong folks just have to keep testing the limits and sometimes just bloodied for trying. This is the price the fight for press freedom!

May PRC becomes more confident in dealing with the free press as we know there is really no absolute free press, even in the 'free for all' country called USA! Let's be practical and report the truth when the untruth hide injustice and unfairness!! Also the authority should take the TRUTH, after verification, as lessons to learn and tips to make corrective actions and improve!