HK journalists call on Beijing to curb mistreatment of city's reporters

The Hong Kong Journalists' Association has called on the central government's liaison office to curb cases of assault and intimidation by regional authorities on reporters from the city working on the mainland.

The demand was laid out in a letter submitted by a dozen representatives of the local media to the liaison office's headquarters in Sheung Wan yesterday.

Addressed to the office's director, Peng Qinghua , the letter described as "unreasonable" and "intolerable" the interference of local-level officials and security officers in the work of Hong Kong journalists on the mainland.

Bruce Lui Ping-kuen, a visiting lecturer at Baptist University who spent years working as part of Cable TV's reporting team on the mainland, said Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying also had an obligation to ask Beijing for assistance on the matter, given "his influential ties" there.

Lui also said local authorities on the mainland had in recent years "stepped up" their interference with the work of Hong Kong journalists.

"Our Whatsapp [a smartphone app] messages with intended interviewees were intercepted by police," Lui recalled. "When we arrived at the scene, teams of officers were already there."