Press Freedom Under Attack Again

Bao Choy speaks to reporters after being released on bail

 

On the first anniversary of the July 21 attacks in Yuen Long last year, RTHK released a comprehensive documentary called "7.21 Who Owns the Truth" broadcast on Hong Kong Connection, which criticized the police for taking so long to respond to passengers in the MTR station who were being attacked by men in white shirts. 

At least 45 people were injured in the 7.21 attack

The emergency line was flooded with calls about the incident, but it took at least 39 minutes for the police to respond. At least 45 people were injured. 

The police have since revised its version of the story that it took only 18 minutes for the police to arrive at the scene, but there is so much footage to prove otherwise.

Nevertheless, in order to conduct research on the documentary, there was footage of vehicles carrying assailants to the station, and award-winning journalist Bao Choy Yuk-ling made a public records search to find out the ownership of these vehicles.

The documentary claims the vehicles were owned by village heads in the neighbourhood, but the owners contacted refused to go on the record.

Choy was arrested at home in Mei Foo

While being allowed to search for the information is not illegal, the police claim she knowingly made a false statement when requesting the information.

So Choy was arrested this afternoon for two counts of making false statements through a vehicle registration search.

The shocking thing is that many journalists have made requests for vehicle registration information before. Not only for vehicles but company registration and land ownership. This kind of information is publicly available; one only has to fill in the paperwork, pay a fee to have the request processed.

She did what any other journalist would have done to investigate the July 21 incident last year.

The police searched her home in Mei Foo and released her on bail this evening. She is scheduled to appear in Fanling Court next Tuesday. 

The doc asked why police took so long to respond

Speaking to reporters tonight, Choy said: "This case concerns me as a reporter, RTHK, and how every other journalist in town is going to report news in the future.

"At this moment I would like to urge all journalists to stand fast to our values and carry on our work with no fear and no favour. Throughout all my years of work, I have been following journalistic principles strictly."

While she refused to comment directly on her case, Choy said it does not serve the public interest when the police operation raises concerns and worries among journalists and the public.

RTHK has been under a lot of heat this year -- but mostly because it does good work and its critics are not pleased.

In March it was raked over the coals for asking WHO health official Bruce Aylward about reconsidering Taiwan's membership in the UN body. He claimed not to hear the question and then abruptly ended the video call.

Headliners frequently made fun of the police

Then the broadcaster shut down Headliner, a long-running satirical show that frequently mocked the police, and reopened an investigation into complaints of sharp reporter Nabela Qoser, who is known for her pointed questions at senior government officials. 

Before Choy was released on bail, the director of broadcasting at RTHK, Leung Ka-wing, RTHK is "afraid" and "worried" but will not alter its editorial principles or stop investigative reporting over the arrest of one of the station's TV producers.

When asked if RTHK would put a hold on any ongoing investigative reporting, Leung replied, "Why should we stop?"

"I would ask you why there be a need to stop? I cannot casually ask people to stop (working on something). There's always a reason when it comes to a pause in work, isn't there? If your boss asks you not to touch a certain issue, you would ask about the reason behind this," he said.

Leung says RTHK will continue its work

We shall find out soon enough what is going on with Choy's case. But it is definitely a massive assault on press freedom in Hong Kong. If reporters cannot be allowed to find basic information on public record, then the city's reputation for its free-flow of information will be greatly impacted.

And by the way shouldn't the police look into a Ta Kung Pao report of its reporter allegedly being followed by someone in a vehicle? Maybe that will keep them busy for a while...