HKJA Blasts CY Leung For Police Brutality Remarks

The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) on Saturday hit back at former Chief Executive CY Leung after he criticised the group for "staying silent about police brutality in the US", following the arrest of a journalist covering a protest in Minneapolis.

A reporter was led away in handcuffs while he was live on CNN, with his producer and a cameraman also detained amid a protest over the death of an unarmed black man in police custody.

"If the arrest happened in Hong Kong, the HKJA must join forces with foreign journalist groups to denounce it. It remaining silent now shows that what it has been upholding is its political stance, not press freedom,” Leung wrote in a Facebook post.

The association later also took to Facebook to respond to Leung's allegation, condemning the arrests of the CNN journalists and "all police brutality".

In an open letter to Leung, the HKJA said it is happy to see that he is on the same page with them regarding the incident in Minneapolis.

It then went on to express regret that Leung has remained silent about police brutality in Hong Kong.

The HKJA noted that the governor of Minnesota had apologised for the CNN arrests, and reminded Leung that the SAR government has never apologised despite Hong Kong reporters being repeatedly injured, hit by tear gas, pepper-sprayed and obstructed from carrying out their duties.

The association said it hopes Leung will publicly condemn police brutality in Hong Kong and help to uphold press freedom in the city.