SARS, Sichuan earthquake, & anti-extradition movement
Vivian Tam
School of Journalism and Communication, CUHK
I was still a young professional in the newspaper industry in 2003, when the outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong took nearly 300 people’s lives, including eight healthcare workers, in only a few months. At that time, I was running between hospitals and funeral parlors to record the cruelty of the epidemic. Seventeen years has passed in the blink of an eye. Out of the blue, another epidemic swept across the globe.
In 2008, I was working as a TV journalist when a severe earthquake hit Sichuan, which caused a hundred of thousands of deaths and injuries. Almost immediately I rushed to the severely affected area just like other Hong Kong journalists, but only saw destructed buildings and crying parents as I reached there relatively late. Knowing that we came from Hong Kong, the mainland citizens surrounded us in grief, and complained about the tofu-dreg projects. It was only later that I realised 2008 was the turning point for the relationship between Hong Kong and mainland China. Before 2008, Hong Kong people’s general impression of China had been getting better. Nothing could turn back time.
Being a journalist and a university lecturer for almost 20 years, I consider journalists as quite a lonely occupation, since the general public does not value our work most of the time. Some even criticise us for “writing up stories” and see us as “paparazzi only”. As I remember, Hong Kong people only realised the importance of journalists during critical incidents such as SARS in 2003 and the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. They respected journalists for risking their lives to bring news from dangerous zones. However, they failed to see the qualities of journalists other than “being brave”.
It was not until the summer of 2019 that people’s perception on journalists had changed, dramatically, after streets and alleys, residential buildings and malls, universities and MTR stations, became the battlefield of confrontation between police and protesters. The anti-extradition movement, starting as peaceful demonstrations, turned into violent clashes as people’s demands were not responded by the Government and more aggressive tactics were adopted by the police.
Just before 2019, many people lacked interests in news and current affairs because the Umbrella Movement failed to achieve any concrete results. At that time, the click rates of news reports kept dropping, and journalists struggled to keep their jobs. I asked my news writing students, who would go to Shenzhen for HEYTEA, “Do you want to become a journalist?” They are all not interested.
A few months later, the same group of students, with helmets on their heads and gas masks over their faces, covered protests on-site as student journalists. I asked them the same question — Do you want to become a journalist? They kept nodding, “I never thought being a journalist could be this meaningful.”
In the evening of Nov17, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University was surrounded by the police. An armoured vehicle was set on fire on the flyover. That day, I came across a few unfamiliar faces of student journalists from different universities. I could not help but walk towards them. “We shall remember the heavy responsibilities embodied in our pens and cameras. We shall never forget the power of our words and images. Please keep in mind always,” I said. All at once, they looked dignified, bearing the stress that they should not have at their age.
That night, the police locked down the university. Everyone, which included the journalists, could be charged for rioting. At 3 a.m., Nov18, I left the police’s line of defense together with dozens of student journalists. The police checked our identity cards one by one, and let us go after searching us and our belongings.
Covering the anti-extradition movement for more than half a year, I feel like I have been learning how to be a journalist from scratch. Although I have years of experience in reporting and teaching, what I have experienced in covering this movement is totally new to me, such as the news coverage landscape, the releases of information, and the ways to deal with sources of information. It allowed me to be humble, to review, reflect and revise my old practices all the time.
In the past, if I was in danger when covering news, I would switch to a crisis mode and adjust my mental state and discipline, just as I was covering epidemics, earthquakes and car accidents. However, the journalists’ position in the anti-extradition movement involved complicated ethical considerations. How to maintain professionalism amid fierce competition between media organisations? How to negotiate with information providers, defend the bottom line, and tell the truth? These are only some of the many challenges faced by journalists in this rare dilemma in the recent history of Hong Kong’s news reporting.
“Beat” reporting is a usual practice in traditional mainstream media, which allows journalists to maintain good relationships with official information providers. However, during the movement, the underlying contradiction between the two groups erupted when the statements made by the police and the Government were largely different with what journalists witnessed on-site.
We were shot, pepper-sprayed, verbally abused, arrested without probable causes, and had our cameras being blocked during news coverage. With freedom of the press being openly violated and our safety being threatened, how should we continue our duties and defend freedom of the press in due course?
Hong Kong has been in the spotlight of the world. The narrow pavements and streets where hundreds of journalists gathered have been the scenes of historical events. Who are capable of handling a large group of media from widely different backgrounds? As for the journalists at the site, how should they get along with other journalists and parties?
The emergence of new technology enables live coverage and online discussion anytime, anywhere. However, it is increasingly difficult to differentiate between real and fake information. Sometimes even videos do not speak the truth. Who is a “journalist”? The struggle to define a journalist reveals the challenge of our time – If we fail to report the truth, we will lose everything. During the anti-extradition movement, accuracy had become a real challenge. Even international news media apologised for misreporting. The role of journalists has received unprecedented public attention due to the anti-extradition movement. On the positive side, Hong Kong people realise the significance of media in a civil society. They no longer see information as a business product, and understand that free news may not necessarily be desirable.
On the other hand, since the anti-extradition movement has triggered intense disputes, everyone wants to influence journalists.
“Why do you take footages here, not there?”
“Why don’t you blur out these faces? Why don’t you publish these photos to help those people?”
“Why some people are portrayed as good people while others are bad people?”
The advices from every corner include friendly suggestions and also powerful manipulations. We must understand that “journalists” are not defined by owners of media organisations, government officials, or certain groups in the community. We must face the entire society and respond to the public interest. The identity of a journalist carries the trust of the people. How to earn the people’s trust is a question that journalists should consider all the time. It is also important to let people understand the need for journalists to keep their independence.
Last year on July 14, I was covering the demonstration in Sha Tin District. All of a sudden, someone yelled “Journalist! Journalist!”, and the participants made way for others to pass through the crowd. Just when I was taking out my safety vest and helmet from my backpack, a kind lady helped me wear the vest. “Please take care, journalist,” she said.
Suddenly I recalled a scene. After my team and I covered the news about corruption of town officials in a Sichuan village during the earthquake incident in 2008, the whole village came out to give us — the Hong Kong journalists — a farewell. The look in that lady’s eyes reminded me of the villagers. “Journalists, please spread our news!” Only in unjust societies without free flow of information would people put their hopes on journalists.