Veteran Newsman Peter Moss died at the Calamba Medical Centre in Manila Hospital on Saturday (February 9) at the age of 84. During the 1967 riots, Moss risked his life to personally conduct interviews and filmed the riots at the scene, and later retained these important historical records with great efforts.

Peter Moss joined the Malay Mail in 1957 and became a journalist. He joined the Hong Kong Government Information Service Department as an Assistant Director until he retired. During the 1967 riots, Mr. Moss led the Government Information Services staff and foreign media filming the riots at the scene, leaving precious historical record. In the 1980s, government officials instructed the burning of relevant films and documentaries. Mr. Moss informed Mr. Simon Chu Fook-keung, the then person-in-charge of Government Records Services and rescued these historical records successfully. These precious records were found to have disappeared from the government archives in 2012, based on reasons the government has yet to address.

After Mr. Moss learned of the incident, in order to reproduce the historical truth, he assisted the “Vanished Archives” team to inquire about and introduce the people who experienced the riots in the past to let the team follow up.

The death of Peter Moss was a great loss to the Hong Kong journalism industry. HKJA expressed its high respect for the person who made important contributions to the preservation of the truth.

Hong Kong Journalists Association
February 12, 2019