Police blame inspector

A police inspector's error of judgment led to a reporter being hauled away after firing a question at President Hu Jintao about the Tiananmen crackdown, the police force said.

Apple Daily reporter Rex Hon Yiu-ting was held in a stairwell for about 15 minutes on Saturday after asking Hu if he had heard Hong Kong people's calls for the truth about the June 4 crackdown. Officers told him he had caused a disturbance by asking his question too loudly.

Mak Yin-ting, Journalists Association chairwoman, said on Tuesday that police told her the inspector who instructed an officer to act made an error of judgment.

But she is unconvinced. 'I doubt that the inspector, a mid-ranking officer in the uniformed services, would request his officers, without receiving any order, to take away a reporter just because he shouted the question too loudly,' she said.