Police play down memo on press queries

The police have denied that an e-mail directive sent out last week by a high-ranking officer is aimed at limiting what officers tell the media or stifling the reporting of sensitive issues.

An e-mail from Albert Cheuk Chun-yin, the regional commander for Hong Kong Island, was sent on Monday to officers stating that district commanders could not answer press queries without seeking approval from the regional commander or his deputy, and that they would then have to discuss the official line to take with the Police Public Relations Branch (PPRB).

The directive was issued after a report in last weekend's Sunday Morning Post in which Kenneth Pemberton, assistant district commander for Central, was directly quoted about the arrest of a serial rapist who was targeting women drinking in Lan Kwai Fong bars. The usual protocol for the media's use of police quotes is that they must be issued through the PPRB, rather than directly from an officer.

The police said Cheuk's message was meant only to 'reiterate the requirements of such procedures'.

However, Mak Yin-ting (pictured), chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, said it showed the police were out to obstruct rather than instruct the city's media.

Mak emphasised that it only made sense that the senior officer involved with the case should be the one to talk about it, and that having to go through these extra processes was just a way of trying to censor what was initially said.