Dramatic images of Beijing students bloodied and running for cover during the ill-fated democracy movement in 1989 is precisely the material from which career ambitions are born. For Jessica Law Wai-man, 22, the call of duty came following those few tragic moments.
'It reinforced my hope of being a reporter because I thought of how the job of a journalist was so important, especially in helping to defend democracy.' Eight years later - after hearing about Hong Kong reporters detained, jailed or turned away by China; after hearing controversial remarks about press freedoms made by Chinese Foreign Minister and Vice-premier Qian Qichen; after hearing about the repeal of certain civil liberties in the territory - Law's sense of mission has only been further provoked.
Having weathered few difficulties as editor of the English-language monthly student newspaper The Young Reporter, the Hong Kong Baptist University student will face a tough challenge as she launches her career following Hong Kong's change of sovereignty, when the rules will become ambiguous and the only certainty is uncertainty.
Such an atmosphere gives Law mixed feelings about how it will affect the press, and how it has affected it so far.
'It is good in that journalists have been reporting more accurately. But I'm sure there must also be self-censorship because, depending on what they write, there may be a threat to their family and friends.' But she emphasises that various forms of censorship already exist due to the nature of the business and the limits of individuals to understand wholly any one event.
Reporters cannot always present the whole picture; what they are offering is 'selected truth', she says.
The Beijing crackdown was a prime example of what can go wrong when reporting on China, which many journalists were already critical of, she says.