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My wife said to me, “How does it feel to be 30?” And I said, “I feel I need a change.”
I came out in 1994 with one suitcase. 
I had a feeling that the really interesting stuff would come a little bit later, when we started applying the new constitutional framework [after the handover]. You had a real sense of history being made.
The challenge for a reporter at that time was to take legal arguments and to convey them in simple terms to our readers.
Of course, there was plenty of murder, rape, robbery and so on along the way.
The trial of Yip Kai-foon was one that was particularly memorable. He was Hong Kong’s most wanted man… I remember the media being told by the judge to stop calling him “notorious gangster Yip Kai-foon.”
I’ve always felt that the courts provide a real window on life in Hong Kong. People may be a little reticent talking about their private lives, but when they get into a courtroom, they really don’t have any choice—whether it’s Nina Wang and the battle over her will or whether it’s some of the criminal cases.
The High Court here has more than 30 courtrooms, and covering it is like flicking channels on the TV. You’ve got to get to the interesting bits. It’s all about timing.
I think the media played an important role [during Article 23] along with academics and the legal profession, in just helping people work out what the implications of these proposals were... and in furthering a debate. 
Some people have been a little surprised that we put so much effort into revamping our print product, but newspaper circulation in Hong Kong has held up very well compared to other parts of the world. 
We wanted to make changes which would give the newspaper a more contemporary, fresher, younger feel. 
We strive for the highest standards, but, as you say, with every newspaper mistakes can occur. These are innocent mistakes that occurred during the production process, and we apologize for them. 
I completely reject it [the accusation that the SCMP is delicate in its coverage of China], completely and utterly. In fact, that sort of thing is a bit of an insult to some of our reporters in mainland China, who sometimes work in a difficult environment to bring readers free, fearless reporting of what’s going on there.
In the last Human Rights Awards, organized by Amnesty International and the FCC, we won 17. 
Look at our coverage of Lu Xiaobo. Look at some of the stories we’ve broken in relation to human rights and environmental issues in mainland China. The Li Peng [China’s premier during the Tiananmen Square protests] diaries were our scoop. 
We’ve got District Council elections later this year, which are perhaps more important than they’ve ever been.
The wealth gap, of course, is a big issue in Hong Kong at the moment, whether you are looking at property prices or whether you are looking at minimum wage legislation. 
We like to complain about things in Hong Kong a lot, and that’s probably a good thing, because we keep the government on its toes
From a journalist’s point of view, it’s a very interesting and newsworthy city. 
It’s just so depressing when you wake up in the morning and want to go for a walk, and you look out of your window and you can’t even see the hill [because of pollution]—let alone walk up it.
I lived in Mui Wo for 10 years after coming out here... A couple of nights I got back at four in the morning. And that was straight from work—that was not via the pub. 
I enjoy that balance between this futuristic urban environment, with the skyscrapers and the harbor that everybody thinks of when they think about Hong Kong, and also to be able to get out and walk in the countryside and enjoy the buffalo.
I used to live in the village where there have recently been attempts to remove the buffalo. I always rather liked them.
If I can find the time, I read novels. I don’t have so much of it since taking on this job.


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First Person: Cliff Buddle

Magazines

For the last several years the South China Morning Post has cycled through editors at a rapid clip; veteran court reporter Cliff Buddle is the most recent journalist to take up the challenge, having led the paper through a redesign in May. He talks to Hana R. Alberts about his favorite cases, Lantau living, typos and how the SCMP refuses to kow-tow to China.
