"Good Money Driven out by Bad": Sacked Investigative Veteran in Cable News

"Good Money Driven out by Bad": Sacked Investigative Veteran in Cable News

Written by Cheng Sze-sze; printed and translated (partly) on 6 Dec 2020
Original: https://news.mingpao.com/pns/%E5%89%AF%E5%88%8A/article/20201206/s00005/1607192524445/%E6%A5%8A%E9%87%8F%E5%82%91-%E8%A2%AB%E5%8A%A3%E5%B9%A3%E7%8B%A0%E7%8B%A0%E9%A9%85%E9%80%90%E7%9A%84%E8%89%AF%E5%B9%A3 

40 newsroom staff at Cable News were laid off last week, including all 3 reporters working for the popular News Lancet programme, known for its investigative journalism and in-depth coverage of current affairs. One China news veteran was also laid off, which triggered all 10 of her teammates resigned in solidarity. 

Some said that the media industry had never united to fight for rights and interests, but one day, when they really made their stance clear, they still could not change the results. Reporters might not have achieved the desired results, but at least they upheld dignity.

On the day of execution, the management blamed the reporters for filming the scene where the staff demanded a reasonable explanation. An assignment editor said, "It is regrettable that this is how we can communicate with you. The sacking decision is now known to the public and the perception to the outside is really bad. I am heartbroken for Cable TV." One of the most heartbreaking scene was Yeung Leung-kit, the principal reporter of News Lancet leaving with his belongings in silence. He was the reporter who won the most awards for Cable News, who made his name known in the investigative news report sector, and the good money driven out by the bad in this era. I asked him to write an article about News Lancet, but he said it is too hard to summarise everything down to a piece of article, so here I am, writing reluctantly. Declaration: The programme began in May 2013, and a colleague and I were responsible for the first story.

News Lancet was a programme developed by then news controller William Fung. With the same resources, he cut the old feature programme and turned it into a new investigative programme. Yeung was just a "kid" in 2013 as he graduated 3 years ago. He said most of his feature stories at the beginning were following what others have followed, and he did not know much about the essence of news. Suddenly he was transferred to follow the news controller to write news stories. "I am frightened. Fung was famous for being fierce. Every Friday there was a story-selling meeting and Fung will surely ask until you cannot answer. Every week I was under lots of stress, lots of stress, lots of stress (he did repeat it for 3 times). Every Thursday night, insomnia was a matter of course. When Fung was still in place, I had never had a good sleep on Thursday night." That last for a year. Yeung, in my impression, has always been a wonderful genius but I had never imagined he was under such pressure. But anyway, insomnia before meetings with Fung was a collective memory for Cable News reporters.

Yeung Leung-kit, an award-winning investigative reporter of the News Lancet programme, was among the sacked employees.  Lancet is a tool to pinch the surface and discover the stories and answers behind it. Investigative report is only one of the tools. His team had reported on a lot of unique topics in a creative way, for example disguising as a mainlander to expose the fake marriage syndicate; discovering that "beef balls" with the strongest beef flavour actually containing no beef; pretending to be the owner of a parallel trading shop to expose the operation behind the parallel trading syndicate; exposing the $150,000 election bribery incident in the District Council [in 2015], which even led to the sentencing of 3 people. Reports also exposed LegCo members receiving degrees from universities that never existed, the suspicious allocation of CSI masks, etc. Many of the investigation reports are rigorous and detailed. Awards won by him are just too many: Cinema/Chicago Television Awards (Gold Plaque - Investigative Reporting/News Documentary), Human Rights Press Awards, Chinese University Journalism Award, Consumer Rights Reporting Awards - to name but a few.

"What makes News Lancet programme different is that it is very down-to-earth", Yeung Leung-kit said. There were always intriguing sound-bites in the programme. "I will look at all the comments on Facebook to think about what attracts viewers, what does not". After a news report, he read over 13,000 comments on Facebook because he wanted to know what part of his work attracted the audience the most.

He worked at Cable News for 10 years, and has seen changes in the senior management and turnover in the team; he was also poached by high salaries many times, but in the end, he decided to stay, but faced with a reduction in bonuses and wages and was put on unpaid leave. "I have been struggling and fighting here, and have never imagined leaving the company like this - immediate dismissal without any prior consultation. When I worked on my stories, I don't want people to spot our company's vehicle and I used mine - I drove my car, I was the cameraman, the driver and the reporter - and I followed Squatters division of Housing Department. The photos on the news showed that I was carrying the carton box with my personal belongings as I left the company. I never imagined this".

The News Lancet team boasted 8 members at its peak but continued to shrink in the past few years. By the dismissal, only Yeung and 2 fresh reporters who joined the team for half a year were there. As they leave Cable News, the only investigative report team on TV marked its end. While other desks also saw many editors and reporters resigning to show solidarity, Yeung thanked them a lot. "We all see this place as our home, but we all knew there was no way of return when we saw how the management communicated with us. The home is no longer there."

Lam Song-man: Forgiving the Authority-abuse Police is Out of the Question!

Forgiving the Authority-abuse Police is Out of the Question!

Translated by Karen L., Written by Lam Song-man  (林爽文)
Original: http://www.passiontimes.hk/article/05-17-2015/23011/ 

In 1978 Soviet Union, a nine-year-old girl was murdered. Kravchenko had been arrested, convicted, and put to death in 1983, though he had an alibi. As a matter of fact, the man was extorted confession under police's torture. 24 years later, he was proved innocent － It turned out to be a serial killer Chikatilo who ended the young girl's life. The case says, the arbitrariness of the police is accounted for Kravchenko's death.

With empowered authority, police forces are able to stop people, question them, interrogate them or hold them in detention within a specific period of time. During the course exercising these authorities, pepper sprays, guns, and so on － use of force － are allowed to be adopted. That is to say, a single imprudent mistake could lead to far-reaching drawbacks. In time of Soviet Union, there was Kravchenko killed being falsely accused; in the U.S., there were black youngsters executed in the street; in Malaysia, political figures from the opposition party were pushed from building; in mainland China, numerous housing clearance duties ended with violence.

In Hong Kong, a mentally handicapped person was forced to make a confession of a wrongly accused murder on the police statement. The case was dropped as the police officer fails to carry on his duty by the book. With higher authority than anybody else, upholding morality and strict manner are required in a police officer. Ordinary people lose clients, increase business cost, or harm their companies' reputation as a result of making mistakes, whereas one's freedom will be gratuitously restricted, will be racked from bodily harm or death, will be put in the wrong if a police officer makes mistakes.

A journalist suffered from rough treatment by seven police officers during the Umbrella Revolution, while the matter is still unsettled; a friend of mine was crookedly charged of drug possession (insufficient evidence before the court set my friend free, but it left a rather huge expense.); some activists were searched naked; some activists were beaten on the black maria; sex workers were made acquiesced to police's demands for sex without payment; some protesters were threatened as such "I will take you back to the police station and rape you"... Cases of abuse of authority are simply too many to count.

Originally, citizens empower police officers the authority to serve the society and maintain public order so that one's freedom is being protected. Their neglect of duty damages citizens' rights while they refuse to apologise for their own fault and exhibit arrogance on the public statement. To understand and forgive them for all this? This might be the best situation to quote the former Commissioner of the Hong Kong Police Force Andy Tsang Wai-hung's catchphrase "Out of the question!".

Tin Sum: The Battle Between Enlightened Hongkongers and the Authoritarian CCP Regime

The Battle Between Enlightened Hongkongers and the Authoritarian CCP Regime

Translated by Chen-t'ang 鎮棠, Edited by Billy Clarke, written by Tin Sum (田心)

Original: http://www.passiontimes.hk/article/03-26-2015/21990 

Despite his daughter still being in ill health, CY Leung has been spending a lot of effort and time in public forums recently. He directly asked voters to "vote them [pan-dems] out" – and he intimidated the public and anybody who might have differing views from his, stating that he is ready to tackle the next possible occupy movement.

And ready he is indeed: The police force has bought three water cannon trucks (worth $27 million HKD in total), three armoured cars (worth $14 million HKD in total) and they’ve employed 600 more officers, with new ‘guidelines’ issued (any suspected unlawful assembly involving three people or more can end in the participants being arrested). It also appears a blue ribbon police force has been formed. Under this regime, rule-breaking officers are above the law, capable of getting away with murder. The current order of the day in this Special Administrative Region is despotic establishment – as far from democracy as you can get.

As of yet, the police haven’t killed any protesters (though we’re not far off), and Hong Kong is still an international city. We can still draw attention internationally if there is any rough restraint or fatalities (like that which takes place across the border). The international eye is our last, and fading, confrontational tool.

For now, we can still retaliate against the crooked authorities in power, and we can still continue this war against these seeping forces that are iniquitously taking over. But if those politicians that we see in the news everyday continue their bickering and keep on with their minor quarrels focusing only on the rare occurrences of ‘violence’, then this will distract from the crux of the problem – and this could leave many in the city uninformed and distracted from the main issues facing society. Focusing on these few isolated incidents of real violence (which all occurred under suspicious exceptional situations) will give the government and police a reason to step up and become despotic. CY himself even boastfully stated this week that he handled the protests well as the PLA were not called in (which is in fact a hidden threat hinting at what could occur in future which also shows where his heart, and his pay check lies).  

The fight for real democracy is in a current mess and it needs to be sorted out, but there are still chances. If someone cheats in a game it won’t be long before justice will prevail, and right not Hong Kong is being dominated by cheaters. Hongkongers is in the midst of a crisis and people need to stop looking the other way and acting like it is not their problem. One day a big portion of the middle-class will flee (it is already happening) and their input to the city will disappear. Regardless of class, we need to all protect our interests and stand up together now.