My Take | Gutter press: Hong Kong education minister Eddie Ng’s spat with Apple Daily a sign of how low we can go
Following a public official around day and night exposes new low for popular newspaper, but Ng calling in the Security Bureau instead of police is also daft
It’s difficult to deal with the yellow press. But then some public figures just compound their problems by being completely daft.
By its own admission, the Apple Daily newspaper had sent reporters in an unmarked car to follow education minister Eddie Ng Hak-kim day and night since December 18. Ng said he feared for his personal safety and called … the Security Bureau.
Shouldn’t he have called police at the first instance, as the bureau would eventually do it for him, leading to a two-hour detention of two reporters?
Was Ng expecting not just regular police help but specially trained security personnel? State protection for a mere education chief would be a waste of public resources.
It’s not clear, though, what the Apple Daily was trying to achieve. Its fruity editors claimed it was trying to see how Ng would handle questions from the public on the controversial Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) for primary school pupils at public events.
Would it not be easier to send reporters to cover those events, as it’s normally done? Or did they think random strangers might throw tricky questions about the TSA at Ng on the streets, and they needed to be on hand to report them?