A Hong Kong journalist was yesterday arrested and left injured while trying to interview a human rights lawyer in Beijing, the second violent incident against the territory’s reporters in China within a week.
Television footage showed police bundling cameraman Chui Chun-ming (徐駿銘) to the ground and dragging him into a van.
Chui, a Beijing-based journalist for Hong Kong’s Now TV channel, was released hours later after signing a letter of remorse.
Now TV expressed “extreme anger” over the “unreasonable and violent obstruction during their lawful reporting in Beijing.”
The incident came four days after another Hong Kong journalist was kicked and beaten by two men while covering the 10th anniversary of a devastating earthquake in Sichuan.
The men claimed they were “ordinary people,” but local residents said they were linked to the government, according to Hong Kong media.
Yesterday’s footage showed police obstructing Chui and asking to see his press pass as he attempted to reach a hearing at the Beijing Lawyers Association.
The hearing was to decide whether human rights lawyer Xie Yan-yi (謝燕益), whom Chui was trying to interview, should have his license revoked, Now TV said.
Xie was one of the lawyers arrested in Beijing’s “709 crackdown” of 2015, which marked the largest ever clampdown on the legal profession in China.
When Chui asked police to return his press pass after inspection, several officers forced him to the ground, where two plainclothes men pinned his arms behind his back and pushed his head down.
He was then handcuffed and put in the van, with Xie also taken away in a police car.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association urged China to stop “uncivilized acts and suppression” of reporting work. It handed a joint letter signed by local media to China’s liaison office in the territory.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China also called for “an immediate end to violence against journalists in China.”
However, Hong Kong officials refused to condemn police actions when pressed by reporters, saying that they needed to “establish the facts.”
Hong Kong Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung (張建宗) said the government was “very concerned” about the safety of the territory’s reporters carrying out their duties “anytime, anywhere.”
Chui was held for four hours then released to hospital to check injuries to his forehead, wrists and knees.
Now TV said he was requested to sign a letter of remorse to admit that he had displayed a “radical reaction” and was “interfering with a public function” before he was released.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the