A female journalist from Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily and her sister were allegedly punched and kicked by four men as they sat down to dinner in a local restaurant last night, the newspaper has reported.
According to the tabloid, the reporter left the paper’s office in Tseung Kwan O at 7pm, and arrived at Fairwood — a Chinese fast food chain — in Sau Mau Ping at 8:15pm.
Shortly after sitting down inside the restaurant, they were attacked by four men dressed in black clothing, yellow helmets, and masks. During the assault, which lasted about 30 seconds, they allegedly yelled: “Tell your boss Fat [Jimmy] Lai to pay back his dues!” — a reference to the paper’s owner, a frequent government critic — then ran out of the restaurant.
The reporter sustained minor injuries, including to her left arm, right ear, and the back of her head, which she says feels swollen. Her sister complained of swelling in her left eye.
Both women were taken to hospital by friends and relatives, and the incident was reported to the police.
The newspaper also published a photograph of the alleged attackers sent in by a reader surnamed Wong, who said she had snapped the shot because they looked suspicious.
She told the newspaper she was in a nearby park playing with her family when she saw the four men head into the restaurant, then run out just under a minute later.
The name of the reporter wasn’t given, but Apple Daily said that her byline has appeared on a number of news reports regarding the city’s ongoing protests, and that she has been responsible for some of the newspaper’s live broadcasts from protest sites.
The report added that they suspected she had been followed, and had received a number of suspicious phone calls with no caller ID since Friday.
In a statement, the newspaper’s publisher, Cheung Kim-hung said: “Apple Daily opposes authoritarianism and will not be scared off by violence. We will stand firm on our positions to defend press freedom and the public’s right to know, to speak out for Hong Kong people.”
The Hong Kong Journalists Association also strongly condemned the assault, calling it “an attack on Hong Kong’s press freedom, and freedom of speech, in order to silence reporters.”
A statement published on their Facebook page last night urged the police force to look into the matter “so that Hong Kong’s reputation as one of the safest cities in the world would not be tarnished.”
https://www.facebook.com/HKJA.official/posts/10157354925960309?__xts__[0]=68.ARDjeZ_DmlFVuDxFKo98w2IPkLvsdMJrooU6tel524Oqp8GWLdAVU0_OH4rNZm7ZquoyALmhR5HsRr0z6oz-zd4F4gDi7-jsUSIqhm5C1h6gdjT1JOcTJXclIemazJTlAHbjmxmzWpaWwNIvLbQBFzTgjG1A6AWy7cALywKUa7lUiTg-9SFjk32BG8uBEG1BMv9pf9KaVmkOPPnKGDSpl64hP0Y2dcmHMu8jMfpt4-G_mB2tS0wqBQBFmFGkGAXNAqH8UwjNqSDXcGJ61F6R7xpLYqstGM9oVfiFAN88sEJ4U1p7mNwdYD3uQMCJ6Q4j4tIWYzpBF420FBiE&__tn__=-R
News of the attack comes just a day after a prominent pro-democracy lawmaker was hospitalized following an alleged attack by three men outside a park in Tin Shui Wai.
Apple Daily is a prominent pro-democracy newspaper owned by media mogul Jimmy Lai via his company Next Media.
Lai and his paper have been targeted on a number of occasions, most recently at the beginning of this month, when two masked men were caught on CCTV throwing what appeared to be a molotov cocktail at the entrance of Lai’s mansion in Ho Man Tin.
In 2015, molotov cocktails were also thrown at Lai’s gate and Apple Daily‘s office in Tseung Kwan O, and in another, slightly more bizarre, 2014 incident, a man hurled animal entrails at Lai while he was visiting the Umbrella Movement occupation site in Admiralty.
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