Chan Chiu Hei’s trial extended after unexpected evidence
Two expert reports from the defensive side came in just two days before the hearing. Judge Dufton has granted more time to both parties to investigate the new evidence.
The hearing started this morning at 9:30 am in the District Court. As soon as judge Dufton walked in the room, he was notified by Mr. Feng, the barrister for the defendant, that there were two last minute news reports that needed to be taken into account before the process could continue.
The barrister explained to the judge that he had received recently a report that contradicts the expert of the prosecution as to the speed that Chan Chiu Hei was going at the day of the accident. Also, he said that he had received a medical report from Dr. Wong. The report is a psychiatric evaluation of the defendant and would presumably be used as evidence. It says that Chan Chiu Hei was suffering from shock at the time of the event.
According to the magistrate, these new reports had to be verified, since they came directly from the defendent ́s side. The barrister for the accusing side asked to take the word and explained to the judge that since the report had just come in a few days ago, there was no time for them to prepare for the situation and that in order to continue, more investigations should be made. After that, he asked the judge to grant him a permission to contact the experts who made these two reports and a supplementary statement. The judge proceeded to grant the motion.
Both sides asked for more time, since Mr. Bruce, who is also part of the case, had a submission to make and could not attend to the hearing as it was scheduled. Shortly after the hearing had started, the judge decided that they should wait for Mr. Bruce and will not look at the new reports, as they may affect the next hearing. At the end, he declared defendence extendence under the same terms.
Reflection
It was definitely a challenge because of the formalities and terms. Also, I had trouble listening to what was said because of the noise inside the room. I had to go twice because the first time I went to a sentence (it was the only hearing in English) and it lasted barely ten minutes. Overall, the court reporting was an experience that I would love to repeat. There were many interesting cases and I think all journalists must know how to court report.
By Andrea Molestina and Maria del Rosario Bonifasi
In September 2014 Hong Kong’s main streets were flooded with hundreds of people protesting against China’s decision to rule out full universal suffrage in Hong Kong. The series of protests often called The Umbrella Revolution or Occupy Central movement, were known worldwide thanks to journalists and people who started publishing stories about the events on social media. It became impossible for Hongkongers and the world not to know what was going on when news about the protests were everywhere. After these series of events, people in Hong Kong realized the need for new media businesses that covered topics from a different perspective. Amongst these are HK01 and Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP).
First steps
Tom Grundy came to Hong Kong more than ten years ago after finishing his journalism undergraduate program in England. He planned to stay only a for a gap year, but that
Tom Grundy at HKU. Picture courtesy of JMSC
did not happen. While in Hong Kong, Tom started a blog called Hong Wrong, which quickly caught the attention of locals and non-locals due to its news pieces. After covering news about The Umbrella Revolution for different media, he decided to create an English-language online media publication and this is how HKFP was born, which according to its annual transparency report has served up over 26.5 million page views since their 2015 launch until last year.
This website is formed by a full-time staff of five members, and it was possible thanks to the support of the people who made donations through crowdfunding, which is how they are able to maintain their independence to this day. “Ten or five years ago I would not have been able to do this,” explains Tom. It only cost him about a hundred thousand US dollars to build the news media, thanks to not only donations but also free tools like WordPress, telegram, and email.
The way in which they engage with their readers is by using social media (although Tom is “skeptical about the idea that news is a two-way conversation sometimes”), making events for their donors and also try to keep in touch with them as much as they can by sending annual transparency reports.
Another publication that also emerged after the Umbrella Revolution is HK01, they have a very different business model than HKFP, the publication is owned by Yu Pun-Hoi, a businessman that invested in the newspaper industry. Different to HKFP, this publication is only in Cantonese.
Picture courtesy of Selina Cheng
Selina Cheng, a journalist that specialized in investigative reporting at Columbia University works at this publication. Similar to HKFP, She is part of a small team, which is integrated by seven full-time investigative journalists. Cheng claims that HK01 is more open to a diversity of topics in comparison with the more traditional investigative reportages in Hong Kong.
21st century journalism
When asked about how to stay alive in an era were journalism is in constant change, Selina said that she doesn’t believe that a large number of likes and page visits can guarantee success for any publication. “It doesn’t matter if you have millions of readers if you don’t make revenue none of that counts.” She continued to explain that newspapers and media such as Quartz and the Wall Street Journal have a smaller readership than other publications, but that they have managed to market for their audiences so that they can make revenue. Smaller audiences are easier to understand and to market for, it is not about the likes, Selina explained.
Grundy seemed to agree with this, both of them mentioned that they don’t measure success with the number of visitors they can get on their websites.“We measure our impact in other ways than only conversations with our readers,” says Tom, who also explains that it is not all about the traffic and comments. His team looks at how their work is picked up by national and international media, citations from other pages like Wikipedia or government reports, etc. For Tom, the idea is not to focus only on getting likes, comments, and shares, but to put out there what is missed by other media. “If we wanted to maximize our audience, we would be doing other types of stories each day, but that is not what is important.”
Hong Kong’s situation
It is no news that although there is more freedom of speech in Hong Kong than in mainland China, it is still delicate to report about certain issues without getting in trouble in Hong Kong. According to HKFP´s annual transparent report, in the past authorities have banned them and other media from attending government press conferences to question officials. Fortunately, they got support from Amnesty International, Reporters without borders, etc.
Selina, on the other hand, explains that for her the main obstacle she has in Hong Kong is government transparency. “Hong Kong reporters depend a lot on what the government gives them and there isn’t any law that regulates the release of information. When you reach them and ask them questions they can answer very vaguely or not answer at all. There is some open data from the government but it’s very old and outdated.” She compares it to the United States where the government has the obligation to give their data if a journalist asks for it. “Reporters are somewhat up to the mercy of the government,” she says.
Tom believes that if journalists cannot find a place in the media business or they are not satisfied with the options available, then they should set up something by themselves. For students, he recommends having all of their journalistic work in a portfolio so that the person who is recruiting can easily see what they have been doing during college time. “Make sure that everything you write is published, it if you can’t, put it in a portfolio instead of letting essays sit on your hard drive.” Selina advices young journalists to always aim for the bigger stories.
The release new publications like Hong kong Free press and HK01 after the Occupy Central protests are not a coincidence, they are the result of thousands of Hongkongers who felt oppressed in terms of freedom of speech and wanted to have a voice in the media. These media publications attract younger audiences that don’t want traditional media anymore, that is why they are trying to be more transparent and open about who they are as a publication.
Hong Kong’s media landscape still has its limitations and it needs to continue to evolve and to be more transparent. With publications like HKFP and HK01, the media environment has started to shift and the response of the citizens has overall been very positive. Their audiences are growing and there are more people that are aware of the importance of the quality of a publication.
Andrea Molestina 