Letters | Hong Kong protests: supporters and reporters are failing to speak up against the mindless violence

Journalists who cover the protests should know the risks and cannot expect police to protect them
Protesters’ representatives and pan-democrats must condemn the use of force against those who disagree with them

Hong Kong protests

Letters

Published: 6:40am, 17 Nov 2019

Why you can trust SCMP

It is time to call out organisations and establishments who, if not directly fuelling the fire that is burning Hong Kong directly, are doing nothing to quell them.

Let us start with journalists. One of my lecturers at university was Martin Stuart-Fox, a former Vietnam war reporter. He often spoke about the role of reporters, and how being a war reporter was a risky job.

Every day they went into the field they knew it could be their last. They did it for different reasons, but usually it was a choice – a chance to chase a story, to let the world know what was happening. They chose to be at the front line and knew the risks involved. They didn’t expect the soldiers to “protect them” and they certainly didn’t expect the Vietnamese to avoid them.

I am not comparing the current situation to the Vietnam war, but only saying that journalists who choose to be on the front line must accept the risks associated with it. If they are between the protesters and the police, they risk injury and harm. That is their choice.

It is not the job of the police to care for them, protect them, or stop and cease their operations for them. Neither would the protesters do that. They are in the middle of a conflict zone and therefore they must accept the risks. A little impartiality might also help the situation.

Next, the so-called spokespersons of the pro-democracy movement. Democracy offers people the freedom to choose. Instead they beat up, to the point of critical injury, people who disagree with them. But their representatives, like one recently interviewed on German television, will not condemn that violence and even openly or tacitly support it.

While they seek an “eye for an eye”, they are going much further and doing much more damage than the police. It is their actions that are preventing a solution. So I am calling out the spokespeople for the “pro-democracy movement”. Get a conscience. Stand up for what is right. Condemn blatant violence by radical protesters.

Last but not least, the pan-democrat camp. They are hoping the current situation will sweep their candidates to power in the district council elections. They are being disruptive, destructive and refusing to call out the violence of the protesters but only that of the police.

Nearly 70 per cent of Hongkongers oppose poll delays despite unrest, survey finds

Those in the Legislative Council need to remember that they are being paid by all of us taxpayers. They should do their job and work towards a political solution. Not hold placards up in Legco, walk out on the chief executive and cause general disruption.

So I am calling out the journalists, the spokespersons for the pro-democracy movement and the pan-democrat camp, and so should all reasonable people in Hong Kong.

Gunther Homerlein, Sheung Wan

Post