Pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao has claimed that Hong Kong Indigenous spokesman Edward Leung “beat up” one of its reporters at Tai Koo Station late Saturday evening. Stories about Leung dominated the paper’s front page today (Aug 15), with an article about the young activist’s “luxurious lifestyle” followed by a report accusing Leung of “suppressing press freedom”.
According to Ta Kung Pao, Leung had been questioned by their reporter, a 42-year-old man surnamed Lo, in Causeway Bay on Saturday but refused to respond, and pushed Lo.
The report claims that they bumped into each other by chance three hours later at Tai Koo Station, at which point Leung allegedly launched an “unprovoked attack” on the supposedly off-duty reporter and “made him fight back in self defence”.
A six-minute-video submitted to Next Media shows Lo (in a grey shirt) and Leung (in a red shirt) being held apart by MTR staff and bystanders at around 11:50pm on Saturday. They’d apparently already had a physical altercation, and Leung’s t-shirt is visibly torn.
The reporter, surnamed Lo, can be heard swearing at Leung and repeatedly saying “go home”, “go back to the mainland” (where Leung was born) and “fuck your mum”, resulting in Leung retorting, “You think you’re so big? Come here. Come here!”.
After Leung takes his own phone out to film the man, Lo begins cowering and shouting “Edward Leung beat me! Help me! He beat me! It’s the Edward Leung who talks about independence!”
When the men get nearer to each other, Lo snatches Leung’s phone and tosses it away. The pair then tussle briefly, with Lo dragging Leung by his shirt at one point, before being separated again by MTR workers.
Apple Daily reports that, earlier that day, Leung had complained he was being followed by a paparazzo who threatened to leak his family’s personal information. Leung said on an online talk show that he believed the man was trying to get a rise out of him for an article.
Since footage of the scuffle was posted online, it has been liked and shared tens of thousands of times. Netizens on local forums reportedly publicised the paparazzo’s own personal information and called for his arrest.
So far, no arrests have been made. Police are treating the incident as a case of “fighting in a public place”.
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