Before interviewing Cai Yuling, colleagues familiar with her prepared me mentally: “Ah Bao (nickname for her in the industry) will talk about the news will be a lot of things (things) to talk about, but personal things on what (nothing), she may not be very used to talking about themselves. (She may not be very accustomed to talking about themselves)”
After talking, it became clear that she is not deliberately hidden, but will be personal passion, beliefs, most of the time in life are injected into the news, so much so that she talked about the days after the suspension of RTHK said bluntly: “Your journalist career and your life values are not separate, if suddenly one day not If suddenly one day you can no longer be a journalist, you can no longer do any interview work, I imagine, maybe your life values will instantly fall to zero. For her, what else is more worth talking about than news?
Today, the RTHK programmers’ union’s campaign in solidarity with Ah Bao reads “fearless” and “selfless”. At that moment, I felt that the word “selfless” was very beautiful and suitable for her. The Chinese translation is “fearless and selfless”, but perhaps these four words are overused, and the unfamiliarity of the non-native language suddenly makes people realize that the specific expression of selflessness is Self-less, a state without “self”.
In 2020, many journalists and media organizations were speculating about the red line of coverage, guessing who would be the first journalist to be liquidated. But when interviewed, Ah Bao tried to recall: “really no askew, no thought of miles of ……” with a bit of bewilderment and apologetic smile, “are constantly thinking about how to do some, how to report, how to balance the views of all parties, are all the way to Hong Kong since Taiwan to do tightly, never is not a review or concern about it. “
As always, as always, ask questions, find answers, as always, check the book, but unexpectedly came to the door of the police one day. After being arrested, she has always reminded herself to calmly and rationally to hold on to the past, do not like to be on camera but try to accept the interview, will be able to say what should be said, “because this has not been a matter of your own. It was not until the verdict was announced and the court retired that she burst into tears.
The times were going to convict such a journalist. She understands that reporting under totalitarianism often does not bring instant justice, and may even bring only more suppression; what pushes her forward is always the others she meets along the way, “I think the interviewees muster more courage than journalists, they face more pressure and are willing to talk to you and offer So how can you let them down? (So how can you fail them?) “
The tree is good shade
The company’s first-ever “The Big Tree” is a new and innovative way to get the word out.
She describes herself as a lucky journalist. In 2005, she graduated from the journalism department of CUHK and joined RTHK in 2007 to be in charge of social and current affairs programs, including “The Proceedings” and “The Battle of the Poor and Rich”, and since 2012, she has been working on “The Clang Collection” for ten years. My boss, colleagues around me keep saying that RTHK is not self-censorship, no one will censor you, I grew up under a good shade tree, so carefree then to pursue their own news ideas. “
Still remember the fledgling when doing a set of “deliberations on the matter”, after the 20th anniversary of June 4, different political parties celebrities to take the attitude of change, by Tam Yiu-chung in the Legislative Council speech named its program, that they target the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong and the flow of dissatisfaction, “that day in the press room on other reporters said. ‘Feed into the face of the tightening you ah’. But there is no awry, after returning to the company no one said I, as if nothing had happened so, the program out on the street. No one will say, someone complained about you, I have to suspend you from the job point point point. “
Later she wanted to focus more on learning to do investigative reporting, and in 2016, she switched to the fax agency (FactWire), “another very good agency. “The first single follow up news, about the MTR urban line new car and the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link trains of Chinese manufacturers” South China Railway Sifang “company, the informant said “CSR Sifang” earlier for the Singapore metro manufacturing trains appear Cracks, to be returned to Qingdao repair, but it is not clear that the Singapore side of the exact time and place to return the car. The fax agency took a tentative attitude and let Ah Bao and the photographer set off for the Singapore depot to verify the news, and the two of them waited overnight for days to finally get a picture of the train being transported away.
“There may be some agencies session, not sure don’t go, ‘two people to Singapore out trip know how much money ah? (two people go to Singapore for business know how much money ah?) What is the point of going to and nothing? (What if I find nothing in the past?) But turn around, you do not go to the scene and how to verify it? I would think that the original media organizations can have such space and tolerance, let you try and fail, do not have to guarantee the birth of children to come back (do not have to guarantee must get the material back). “
During that period A Bao was more systematic in organizing his experience and knowledge of doing news. Unfortunately, by the end of 2018, fax agency operating difficulties, she accepted the voluntary separation arrangement to freelance contract way back to RTHK to produce “Clang Collection”.
That moment of overlap between China and Hong Kong
For Ah Bao, the concern has always been how to make the best of the profession of journalism. The fierce sticks of the white men in Yuen Long are still vivid in my mind, and many people who have watched “Clang Collection” (7.21 Who Owns the Truth) said to her, “It’s so dangerous for you two girls to enter the village. But what the production team was considering at the time was mainly the technical issues of how to make the story appropriate and the discussion of journalistic ethics.
We are very detailed to, when you go to the door, you have to contact each other, you have to ask questions that will make each other feel that they are not being offensive, or feel that you are unilaterally accusing them, not in line with the principles of fairness, impartiality, or feel that their privacy is being violated. Or feel that privacy is violated; if someone asks why we will have their personal information, what to say clearly to let them know, etc. “There are all kinds of camera shots, picture processing, etc., and each meeting is several hours long.
“We discuss a lot of these problems (we discuss a lot of these problems), and not to deal with …… wow will someone find a knife to chop me ah (will someone find a knife to chop me ah), will not be pulled by the police, completely did not think about (Not at all thought). Because I would think that the world, the community’s perception of the media is so, there must be a group of people persistent so ask questions and get answers. I do not feel that the use of any particularly aggressive, particularly inappropriate methods, and will attract some consequences or reprisals, the question is rather what you do, whether you can withstand the code or moral challenges and tests. “
Perhaps because as calmly and neutrally as possible, the film crew entered many villages have only once encountered vicious words of expulsion, “told us ‘do not stay here, you go! ‘ (do not stay here, you go), is already cut out of the street that. Most of the time we are well aware of the purpose of our visit. “
Country black did not come out to fight her, but the program out on the street four months later, November 3, the New Territories North District Major Crime Unit agents arrested at the door, and responsible for investigating the 7.21 case is the same department, “in fact, then there will be no conflict of interest? “
A Bao still remember that it was a very ordinary noon, one hour, she worked at home in a home suit, and suddenly five or six police officers pressed the doorbell, “did not think about what happened, but also did not receive any prior notice, so of course it was a good surprise. She asked to change clothes first and then open the door, but less than a minute, set on the clothes are very reluctant time police officers continue to press the bell again, “may think I do not know will destroy the body to customize Some what gossip. “
The police entered the door on the caution and arrest her, the caution content has a clear description of the report on the “7.21 who main truth”, involving which car license plate checklist to make false statements, violation of the “Road and Traffic Ordinance”, “I understand what she said tight, but is, at the moment I have a hard time accepting it is a fact. “
In fact, you will …… at the moment is a good wooden, perhaps I am constantly telling myself to be calm, that is, not to lose, if I feel that I have not done anything wrong, I will not want to show a vulnerable side in front of people, follow me on All the way with an indifferent attitude to deal with. So quickly into a pragmatic discussion, said to call a lawyer, to ensure that a lawyer can be present in the case of the first to search the house, with a good rational approach to think about what is most beneficial to themselves and sensitive materials, the damageage will be reduced to a minimum, so there is no feeling of. “
After the police search house will take her to the Cheung Sha Wan Police Station to book, and then transferred to the Tai Po Police Station to record a statement. The police car escort is the only moment of a hint of emotion, “suddenly remembered the previous interview in the mainland, once after contact with the June 4 ‘Tiananmen Mothers After being escorted to the police station by a police car, that image overlapped with the moment I entered the car. I have only a few experiences of people being arrested in my life, and that scene is like, you are sitting in the car, there are police officers on the left and right side of the car pinning you down. “
“So I sighed a little: ah, Hong Kong has gone to this day La. “
Believe that everything is not finished
For many Hong Kong people, 7.21 of 2019 began, we have repeatedly sighed, Hong Kong has gone to this day?
7.21 is an extremely nagging event for Ah Bao, even though she has done two “Clang Collection” discussions one week and one year after the incident, there are still too many question marks. What she can’t let go of is that the establishment side has deliberately promoted a different version of the 7.21 incident – from the indiscriminate attack on the passengers by the white men to a melee between the black and white men, and then to a conspiracy by the black men to cause trouble in Yuen Long, a version that is highly convincing in a certain community.
A Bao remembered that after the incident in 2019 the producer had judged that the incident would have far-reaching implications for the anti-revision movement and Hong Kong as a whole, so early the next morning, the “Clang Collection” film crew swooped into Yuen Long and asked the merchants to take CCTV footage from that night, hoping to catch up with the police first. Six or seven merchants were willing to provide the footage, and the team took a look at the footage and compiled it within a week, producing “Dark Night in Yuen Long”, which mainly reorganizes the incident, asks about the deployment of the police and why no police officers came to the scene.
After a few months, anti-revision of the big events wave after wave, colleagues are overwhelmed, 7.21 of the outstanding issues only temporarily shelved. “At that time, we also feel that it seems to have been watching the closed-circuit television can look at the things, or look at the unseen is not to see the frame. “
In early 2020, on the one hand, I noticed another set of arguments in rewriting the incident, and they are still in contact with the interviewees in “Yuen Long Night”, the people who were injured that day said to Ah Bao, so far there is no police arrangement to identify people, “they want to know exactly what hit them is the person, how to do so? “They decided to make sure to do the first anniversary of the report.
“In fact, they are very distressed do not know how to start, they think it is better to turn back to watch the film. The first year because of time pressure, they are 2 to 4 times the speed to watch the footage, this time in real time, frame by frame, and focus on identifying the costumes and appearance of the more prominent characters, systematically give them names, note down the time of appearance, screenshots, etc.. The four writers and directors spent months watching all the footage from beginning to end, in addition to their daily work; they slowly recognized the location of the gathering of the white people, the logo of the township council on their clothes, and began to identify the license plate numbers of some of the pick-up vehicles, and then sorted out a series of related people and addresses and visited them one by one.
She was grateful to the only one in the film who was willing to be on camera and interviewed by name, the village chief of Xizhongwei, Ha Tsuen Township, while the other people in white basically refused to be interviewed for various reasons or could not be reached. There are one or two is not want to be interviewed, but willing to spend most of the half hour behind the camera to talk to the reporters, “good friendly, shocked we stand outside the sun, Zhong Teng carry the cover out, the performance of good gentle good manners, you can hardly imagine this person in front of you that day was present at the scene. I don’t know if he was involved in the attack or had a physical confrontation with someone, but I assume that not 100% of the bad guys. The people I came in contact with are very real, and when they come to be real, you won’t be so arbitrary as to present or to judge things. “
She stressed that the starting point of “Who is the master of the truth” is not to listen to the voice of the white man, to understand why they were there, whether there is an organization or other purposes, she believes that the truth only they are willing to tell, will be pieced together. The story of the attacked, or the so-called men in black, is that we are trying hard to find some of the white people we have identified and hope they are willing to talk about it, which is what the critics want us to do. “
Ah Bao said here in a calm tone, as if this is not a sarcastic sentence, just a clear as water question.
From 0% to 5%
But to be arrested is to tell her that the regime does not want, and does not allow, people to ask these questions.
Interviewed before the verdict, Pao admits that she is still in the midst of the events, unable to sort out her feelings; at times she struggles to find the words and then laments that the language is too poor and the matter too absurd. The trial was short, and the dispute between the two sides was mainly about the legislative intent of the Road Traffic Ordinance, the scope of application of “traffic and transport matters”, and other legal points. The defense did not argue the facts as to whether there was a search of the register and who did it.
For Pao and all journalists, book search is the most common process. Yes, I checked the books; then, I’m guilty? Without pleading her own case, Ah Pao went to court and just said loudly and twice: “I plead not guilty. She is grateful to veteran journalist Alan Au for his article to advocate for her, “At the moment, there was actually no good thought, it was really a so-called broadcaster’s intuition, thinking that speaking I hope to express my position clearly, and her article with a third party’s clear mind to speak to, the nature and importance of this single case in the freedom of the press. “
At the end of last year, she was arrested and released on bail after RTHK suspended her from work, and did not provide legal support, the results of several friends clip money to help her hire a lawyer. The suspension allows her more time to take care of herself, do sports, accompany her family, “may be a blessing to come. Because I have no choice in the matter, the only choice is to try to hope not to be affected by it, and then live a good side, this seems to be an invisible goal of mine, I try hard to do in this direction. “
She is also thankful that she was soon invited to participate in the Facebook page of the “Bystander anti-sending stories”, and someone introduced the work of the web station “Lace”. She is also thankful that some of her friends soon asked her to participate in writing the Facebook page of the “anti-sending stories”, and someone introduced her to the work of the web station “Lace” to try to produce some social programs in new media. I think afterwards it seems so miserable, being a journalist seems to …… have no other value in life? I don’t know, maybe I used to be so quick to use my profession to position and introduce myself, so easy to say ‘I’m a journalist’ with people. So I’m glad I didn’t have the position of “Clang Collection” after I met another position with relatively less pressure to do it, which also made me not to be so lost and my self-worth went to a very low level. “
After the verdict, Pao said she was proud of the 7.21 story in the Clang Collection. However, all the answers she wants to ask about 7.21 are still outstanding, and justice for all the victims is still far from being done.
“Yes, I always think that doing news or investigative reporting is just a process of trying to get closer to the truth. The truth is a very complex matter, it may consist of 100 facts, my efforts this time only to verify five facts, if you know that there are 100 facts behind you will feel, wow these five facts are only minimal, completely insufficient to affect the true picture of the matter, but I think it is such a process, you do not go all the way, it will always be a vacuum. “
In the case of 7.21, she has seen people publishing books, people looking for witnesses, and even court hearings on all the nitty-gritty details, all in the process of restructuring the truth; and Pao still expects that when time passes and the political pressure subsides, more people who were there that day will be willing to speak out what they saw and knew. “Don’t take lightly what has happened in the meantime. I hope that more and more facts can be constructed into a more comprehensive picture if enough time passes and if people’s efforts do not stop. Once you give up, it’s actually the day he stops. “
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