HK journalists protest abuse of reporters in China

By Dikki Sinn - Associated Press writer | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News Philippines
September 13, 2009

Hundreds of Hong Kong journalists, lawmakers and residents marched Sunday to protest the alleged police beatings of three reporters covering recent unrest in western China and demanded a government investigation.

Demonstrators wearing black rallied outside a police station before marching to local offices of China's central government.

"This time the authorities are over the line," Mak Yin-ting, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalist Association, told the gathering. "They did not only beat reporters, but blamed them for inciting the public disorder."

Organizers put the crowd at about 700 people. Police did not immediately provide estimates.

The TV journalists were covering the aftermath of a mass protest by Han Chinese in the troubled city of Urumqi earlier this month after a series of attacks with syringe needles that China's government blames on Muslim separatists.

The three, who worked for TVB and Now TV news outlets in Hong Kong, said they were kicked, punched, and shoved to the ground by police before being detained for about three hours.

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