The journalist was told to move away from the exit as activists in exile called on people to remember the Aug. 31, 2019 attacks on unarmed civilians by riot police.
Hong Kong police on Tuesday arrested a journalist outside Prince Edward MTR station, as many in and outside the city marked the second anniversary of attacks on train passengers by riot police at the height of the 2019 protest movement.
The journalist for the news website Egg Egg Club, was arrested for “disorderly conduct in a public place” after shouting insults at police officers.
The man had been standing outside an exit from the subway station, when he was told by police officers at the scene to step back into the press area, the Hong Kong Standard newspaper reported.
Police also questioned a number of people who wanted to leave flowers and other offerings outside the exit as a mark of respect for anyone who may have died in the incident, the paper said.
Hong Kong residents have repeatedly left flowers outside the subway station to commemorate one or more people whom many believed died when riot police attacked unarmed train passengers on a train and on the subway platforms.
Authorities in Hong Kong have repeatedly hit out at ‘malicious rumors’ that someone died when riot police stormed the Prince Edward MTR station on Aug. 31, but the selective release of stills from surveillance footage from cameras inside the station has done little to assuage public mistrust in the official narrative.
Zhang Xiaoming, who heads China’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO), has warned that people who express the belief that anyone died in the incident could be breaking a draconian national security law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020 as a response to a wave of mass, popular protests over the erosion of Hong Kong’s promised freedoms.
Meanwhile, Hongkongers in exile spoke out more freely about the anniversary.
“Never forget how the Hong Kong police terrorized and assaulted citizens two years ago,” former lawmaker Nathan Law, now in exile in the United Kingdom, said via Twitter on Tuesday.
“Full-geared special force rushed to the station and attacked passengers indiscriminately,” Law said. “Many were severely injured, yet no officers are held accountable.”
Rewriting history
Wong Mau-chun, who was named as mysteriously missing, believed killed, in early rumors about the attacks, and who later turned up in the U.K., said people should resist the government’s attempts to make people forget about the events of Aug. 31, 2019.
Wong, also known as Jim Wong, faces eight charges including rioting, should he return to Hong Kong, and has applied for political asylum in the U.K.
“I think everyone has a duty to find out the truth and never to forget what happened,” he told RFA. “[The authorities] are constantly trying to revise the details and rewrite history.”
“It’s now been two years … and the biggest issue we face now is forgetfulness,” Wong said.
“People in Hong Kong may think that nothing is going to happen, because there aren’t any more protests now, and everyone is in jail,” he said. “But a lot of people are still suffering because of what happened … we are talking about people’s lives.”
Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. https://www.rfa.org
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