Journalists are the Public

When the world becomes too ridiculous, some boundaries that used to be black and white turn grey.

The journalists who report on court cases update the “menu” every night and list out cases for the next day in different courts scattered in whole Hong Kong. “East district”, “Sha Tin”, “Kwun Tong” are the names of different courts together with the details of the cases and the starting time of each trial.

As news media companies have limited manpower, they could only choose to sit in the more newsworthy cases. Among all the list of cases last night on assault on police officers and riot related to the anti-extradition Bill movement, there was the case “Fan Ling court 1, 12:00, new case mention”. The defendant was Choi Yuk Ling, the director of Hong Kong Connection.

The journalist becomes the defendant

This is not the first case, nor the last case of a journalist being a defendant. However, the iconic meaning of the case is that it is a senior reporter that was arrested for using vehicle registration check, which has been a tool commonly used by journalists for years.

The government altered the relevant application form for vehicle registration check in October 2019. The option for choosing other purpose of registration check, where journalists normally fill in news interview, was removed, leaving the other 3 options, “other matters related traffic and transport”, “legal process” and “vehicles trading”. The reason news interview was not among the options hence Choi was accused of making false statement.

This incident shocked the news industry in Hong Kong. Choi was arrested, charged and brought to court for public affairs. In the afternoon on 10th Nov 2020, friends in the journalism industry had reserved their time and arrived at Fan Ling court more than an hour before the court started. They all knew that seats were limited and they would need to arrive early for getting in the court.

The journalist and the general public 

The seats for hearing at a court was divided into 3 categories. First, the family seats allow a few family members of the defendant to sit in. Second, the journalist seats allow the representatives of the news media companies to interview. Third, the seats for the public allow the general public to sit in the hearing, which also gives credit to court transparency. However, the juvenile court does not have seats for the public to protect the privacy of the minor. 

For famous cases like the Occupying Central case, sometimes journalists and the general public need to arrive 4 to 5 hours before the court starts to get a seat. They might need to queue outside the court as early as 3 am. The journalists might need to fight for seats with the general public. 

Things are a bit different this time. There were not many from the general public queueing for the hearing. The court has prepared, on top of the main court, there was another side court opened for live streaming of the main court. Some seats were closed for to maintain social distancing so there were fewer seats at the court.

The staff at the court gave out tickets for different categories of seats as usual, having a queue for the journalists and another for the general public. Among the hundreds of people, what was ironic was that most people who came were senior journalists in the journalism industry. Many of them became senior management staff who had worked on many famous new in the past. 

In what kind of world that journalists would become defendant and the people who came for hearing, interviewing, or even showing support are all reporters from the journalists industry? Determining who are the journalists or the general public becomes meaningless.

When hardworking and low profile reporters became the focus of the news because of their works, it became hard to expect that the to be able to stand afar to observe the matters. 

When a reporter faces charges because of public interests, it becomes hard to determine the difference between the public and the journalist.

The general public should care about the journalist, and the public facing side of the journalist has never been so clear.

The so-called distance between the journalist and the public is to allow the journalist to have protected space to interview under no interruption or pressure. This way of distinguishing a journalist and a member of the general public about professional operation. 

I hold a “general public ticket” today. When comparing it with the “journalist ticket” I got in the past, I find the categories ironic. 

Support from other journalists

Some journalism students came to witness this historical moment. 

Some young reporters came and said they took a day-off for this because they did not know what they could do except sitting in the hearing. 

Some former senior journalists took a day-off and came to show support as a friend. 

These people queued for “the public tickets”.

The staff at the court kept telling everyone how to queue or stand. I could not help but said, “These people are very gentle. Don’t worry. You don’t need to determine who the journalists are. These are all journalists.”

The court hearing finally started. Only one minute into the hearing, the court secretary spoke out the charge as in a smooth flow and asked whether the defendant understood. Choi, slightly chubby and in a pair of slightly loose trousers, answered clearly twice, “I understand.”

After the hearing, many people said they already had tears in their eyes at that moment. The long trial continued. At 12:01 pm, A male voice shouted, “Court!”, and the case would be heard again in the coming January.

These people then left the court in groups. Choi also came out and shook hands with her friends because bail was granted.  Some long missed friends showed up and Choi was a little surprised and hugged them. The pressure from the charge on her was heavy. Although she was usually calm, her face still turned red.

When Choi was leaving the court, there were over a hundred journalists ready at the doorstep in a semi-circle formation. This reminded me of the day when the former chief executive, Donald Tsang, was charged. 

Across the road, there were a few policemen standing and holding a bag of warning flags including the purple one which wrote “you might be breaking the National Security Law”.  Some were filming the quiet journalists who came for the hearing. 

The journalists can do no harm. They can only take photos with a camera and write with pens. What else can they do? In response to the non-sense of witnessing colleagues being arrested, the only thing we can do is to keep doing reporting.

Source: The Stand News #Nov10

Author: Vivian Tam

#Journalists #Public #Ridiculous #ChoiYukLing #RTHK #Defendant

https://www.thestandnews.com/politics/%E8%A8%98%E8%80%85%E5%B0%B1%E6%98%AF%E5%85%AC%E7%9C%BE/