A television reporter was harassed by a woman for five minutes while she was covering the sit in protest against the government´s Northeastern New Territories Plan outside the LegCo last Friday. Netizens promptly posted support for actions as such to ventilate discontents on reporters. The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) expresses regrets and is deeply concern that normal reporting work would be impeded if such actions proliferate.

During the sit in last Friday, a TVB reporter was confronted by a woman unceasingly with questions about TVB´s news coverage. Ng politely gave the woman an email address to make her complaints. But the later refused to leave and continued airing her discontents for some five minutes.

This is not a standalone incident. Reporters have encountered verbal and physical violence at work before. Hong Kong is a free society. The HKJA believes that we all enjoy the right to express. And reporters´ job is to cover news events, working on the frontline to collect information and report. But many other factors come into play in shaping how news reports are finally published. Harassing frontline reporters at work not only cannot redress their discontents, normal journalistic work would also be hampered and the right to information dented.

The HKJA calls on the public to direct their complaints to relevant organisations or the HKJA if they find problems with any news reports.

Hong Kong Journalists Association

30th June 2014