Police Want Control Of Narrative, Says Academic

The head of the University of Hong Kong’s journalism and media studies centre, Keith Richburg, said on Thursday that the new police policy to recognise only government-accredited journalists is a way for authorities to control what is being reported.

Richburg said during the past 18 months of anti-government protests, the government and the police on the ground lost control of the narrative, because there were so many journalists recording what they were doing.

The new policy means freelance or student journalists, or those from non-mainstream media, may not get accredited. But Richburg said he has told his students they have to fight for a free press.

"Generally, for our journalism students, what I tell them is 'Full steam ahead''', he said. "We're not changing anything. We're doing exactly what we're supposed to do: holding them accountable."

"A free press isn't free, you have to fight for it. And you have to stay out there, you have to keep pushing the line."

Richburg said, on October 1, Campus TV filmed live the first time police shot someone. He said student journalists had covered many other incidents and they had really helped the public understand what was going on.

Richburg said accreditation existed in many Western democracies but it was used to facilitate access and not to restrict the number of journalists and what they could do.

He said he could only speculate that the move by the police was related to the new national security law.