Dear members,
To safeguard the public’s right to know, your union launched a signature campaign last week strongly calling on the Police and Fire Services Department to release information on crimes to the media in real-time, without any pre-selection, after deleting the personal data of the people involved. A record high of 1602 members, colleagues, teachers and journalism students as well as three media-related organisations endorsed this. This huge success deserves some self-congratulation.
It was not easy getting such a satisfying result. I, on behalf of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, would like to extend our grateful thanks to everyone in the media industry, related organizations and journalism faculties who helped spread our message and collected the signatures.
Among newspapers, The Apple Daily distinguished itself by getting 145 colleagues to sign. It was followed by Ming Pao, which secured 74, Hong Kong Economic Times (68 signatures) and Hong Kong Economic Journal (67 signatories).
TVB got the most signatures among electronic media outlets. The coordinators worked most diligently to get 95 colleagues to sign. With 92 signatures RTHK is the runner-up with now TV getting 75 news workers to sign.
In academe, Journalism of Zhu Hai College was the most supportive. Under the leadership of its faculty head and the coordinator, 242 names were secured in just three days. How enthusiastic and effective they are!
Whether your been included or not, you have my grateful thanks for your support. Every name counts and each of you contributed to the success of the campaign. As everyone understands, some organisations have less manpower and thus less able to match the larger ones.
I sincerely hope that the law enforcement teams will act in accordance with the ethos of the industry and correct the information dispatch mechanism as soon as possible. Otherwise, you are putting yourself against all signatories who stand on the side of what is right and what is in the public’s interests.
Mak Yin-ting
Chairperson, HKJA
21st November, 2011