'Reporters and police can work together' Reporters can work together with police to avoid trouble at the Olympics, according to Sun Weijia , media operations director for the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. Mr Sun made the comment yesterday when he was asked to comment on scuffles on Friday between Hong Kong reporters and police at ticketing venues for the Games. 'A lot of things can happen at the scene because we know that there can be different situations in different places,' Mr Sun said on the sidelines of a press conference. 'Reporters can work smoothly if we have good order. 'I think if we can work together to maintain good order, then reporters can do their job in a more convenient environment and [police in charge] will also feel more at ease.' Last Friday, scuffles broke out between police and Hong Kong reporters who were at the ticketing venues to cover the long queues of people desperate for Olympic Games tickets. During the chaos, South China Morning Post photographer Felix Wong was detained after becoming involved in the scuffle and inadvertently hurting a policeman. He was later released. Hong Kong Cable TV reporter Vicky Law Fai-cheung sought medical treatment after he was pushed to the ground by a police officer and suffered an injury to his neck, while a camera carried by a Television Broadcasts cameraman was damaged by police. Bocog officials have admitted police acted inappropriately. On Saturday, director of the Beijing International Media Centre Zhai Huisheng described the scuffle as an accident when he met about 20 Hong Kong journalists. 'We have spared no efforts to solve [technical problems] for reporters in the past few months,' Mr Zhai said, adding that the incident would also enable officials to scout out new measures to deal with possible challenges during next month's Games. The central government has been criticised for manhandling journalists over the past few months. Just one day before the scuffle, a Now TV reporter and cameraman were detained when reporting on the chaos outside the Olympics ticket offices. Earlier this month a Ming Pao reporter's digital camera card was confiscated while covering the China Commodity Spot Exchange scandal at its headquarters in the capital and an Apple Daily reporter's home-return permit was first confiscated. The permit was later returned to the reporter, Norman Choy, who received his accreditation last week. Additional reporting by Kristine Kwok
