Following a weekend in which several reporters were manhandled, injured, and in one case, arrested, a group of journalists today boycotted a police press conference after one freelancer disrupted the briefing to protest increasing police violence against journalists.
Speaking on behalf of the protesting reporters, one person, identified as freelance journalist Amy Ip, shouted out a statement to protest the recent arrests and mistreatment of reporters covering the anti-government protests, now in their 21st week.
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At about 4:30pm, Ip shouted out a statement condemning police actions towards reporters, from the use of force to blocking reporters from filming and doing interviews.
Ip described it as “harmful to the freedom of press,” adding “not only has this been the treatment received by us local reporters, but by international journalists too.”
She then turned on two flashlights and pointed them at the police and public relations bureau officers leading the presser — a nod to the increasingly common police tactic of shining bright flashlights into reporters’ cameras to prevent them from filming or photographing police actions.
Shortly after the disruption began, the officers who were giving the press conference got up and left.
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Ip then went to the front of the room to give a speech, saying at one point, “We’ve been very cooperative; it’s you guys who haven’t been cooperative with our questions.”
However, an officer overseeing the press conference repeatedly asked her to leave the room, telling Ip “this venue belongs to us,” and adding that journalists shouldn’t disrupt the briefing.
Live streams from the room showed that after Ip was kicked out, a handful of journalists also joined in boycotting the press conference.
About half an hour later, the officers running the press conference returned, with Chief Superintendent John Tse from the police public relations bureau beginning by condemning the interruption, which he said “deprives the citizens access to crucial information.”
He also urged any media organizations with any grievances regarding police treatment of journalists to “use proper channels of communication.”
The charged scenes at the press conference came just hours after a freelance photojournalist was released from police custody after being arrested while covering a protest in Kowloon last night.
Before the press conference was interrupted, Tse touched on a controversial interim injunction forbidding photographing police that authorities say is meant to curtail doxxing of officers and their families. Tse said the ban would only target malicious doxxing, despite the broadness of its wording, and dismissed concerns that it would curtail press freedom.
He also said that since last Monday, police have arrested more than 200 people, aged 12 to 67.
