A Hong Kong reporter has disrupted a police news conference to protest what she called escalating violence by officers against journalists covering the city’s pro-democracy protests.
A journalist is assisted after getting hit by pepper spray during a rally in Hong Kong on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019. Hong Kong police fired tear gas Sunday to disperse a rally called over concerns about police conduct in monthslong pro-democracy demonstrations, with protesters cursing the officers and calling them “gangster cops.” (AP Photo/Kin Cheung/MANILA BULLETIN)
The reporter interrupted the briefing on Monday by reading a statement alleging police mistreatment.
To emphasize her point, she used a high-powered strobing flashlight similar to ones that police have used on photographers and video journalists.
The five officers sitting on the stage left, leaving the reporter, identified on social media as a freelance journalist, to deliver her remarks before staff intervened and removed her.
Tensions are rising further between police and media after violent demonstrations on Sunday night in which police used aggressive tactics against media and detained a photojournalist overnight.