Police Walk Out, Cancel Briefing Over Silent Protest

Police walked out of their regular press briefing on Monday and it was soon cancelled altogether after some journalists donned helmets and called for an end to police violence.

Reporters from six different media outlets each had a Chinese character stuck on their helmet and between them they formed the message "Investigate police brutality, stop police lies."

Although they didn't shout any slogans and were sitting down a few rows from the front, the police demanded the signs be removed. When this didn't happen, the officials left the briefing room, just moments after they had arrived.

A member of the force's public relations bureau then ordered the protesting reporters to leave, shouting out the names of their outlets: RTHK, Ming Pao, Stand News, Initium Media, AM730 and InMedia.

But the six journalists remained in their seats and after around 20 minutes the police said the press conference was cancelled.

Before the lights went out on the reporters, a spokesman for the force read out a statement saying the regular briefing is an important channel for the police to communicate with the public and therefore mutual respect and order is required.

He said the conference is not a place for individual reporters to express their views and there are others channels for them to air any grievances.

Accusing the six of being irresponsible, he said their action had forced the cancellation of the briefing and deprived the public of the chance to hear what the police had to say.

One of the six, Ronson Chan from Stand News, said afterwards that they had just wanted to show support for journalists arrested while working at protest sites.

Chan urged bosses of the six media outlets involved not to punish their workers for the stunt.

The protest had been arranged during discussions on WhatsApp between dozens of the city's journalists amid fury over media workers being arrested, tear gassed, pepper sprayed, beaten and shot with rubber bullets and bean bags.

This anger had grown over the weekend following the arrest of a Stand News journalist and a student reporter from Baptist University who were both covering a demonstration in Tai Koo.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association and other unions issued a joint statement strongly condemning the "random arrests" of reporters and calling for Chief Executive Carrie Lam to order the force to stop obstructing the media from covering protests.

Last Monday, a number of journalists joined a freelancer in staging a rowdy protest at the day's police press conference, leading to the briefing being suspended for around half an hour.

After it resumed, the police condemned the disruption and accused the media of denying the public their right to information.