HONG KONG / FEATURE 1
CNN retracts misleading headline about police enforcement amid Sunday HK protest
CNN apologizes for ‘erroneous’ headline used to cover Sunday protest
Published: Aug 29, 2019 10:28 PM


A radical protester in Hong Kong Photo: AFP



Despite self-claimed objectivity and neutrality, some Western media have done the opposite in their coverage of the ongoing Hong Kong protests, experts said on Thursday.

According to Hong Kong police, CNN has apologized for an erroneous headline when covering the violent protest on Sunday.

In a letter sent to Hong Kong police on Wednesday, CNN Hong Kong's Vice President and Bureau Chief Roger Clark informed them that a headline  was temporarily displayed on the CNN website saying "Police use petrol bombs and water cannons against Hong Kong Protesters," which he admitted was "erroneous" and later "replaced."

CNN apologized for this error and said it is "working hard to ensure that reporting of the Hong Kong protests is fair and balanced at all times."

"The wrong headline of CNN shows that its editing is not prudent enough and that it has a prejudiced political stance toward the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government and police," Victor Chan Chi-ho, vice chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Young Commentators, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Chan urged CNN to draw a  serious lesson and report Hong Kong in an objective, strict and fair attitude.

"We Hong Kong residents should also be critical when reading foreign media reports," said Chan.

On Sunday night, police deployed water cannons for the first time to disperse protesters, but the cannons were used to direct water at barricades only, rather than protesters, in order to quell the riot.

Meanwhile, the rioters threw petrol bombs at police, rather than the other way around as shown in a purported video clip, Hong Kong police said at a press conference on Wednesday.

This is not the first time that Western media and some local media in Hong Kong covered the months-long anti-government protests in a misleading way.

On Sunday night, when several police officers were besieged by black-clad protesters at Sha Tsui Road in Tsuen Wan, police officers pointed their guns at radical rioters while some reporters stood in their way.

Without giving a full explanation as to why police officers raised their weapons, these reporters chased them and accused them of committing violations by waving firearms at unarmed citizens and reporters. But they failed to explain the reason why police officers raised their guns, as at one point, several officers were attacked by over 100 rioters armed with weapons including bricks, umbrellas, batons and iron bars, putting their lives in danger.

On Saturday, a photo went viral online showing dozens of reporters focusing their cameras on a special tactical squad officer who hid in a corner pointing a gun at protesters. 

The photo could be used by the media to prove their accusation of police brutality, observers said. "The photo is evidence that how reporters could easily distort the truth when only reporting what they want to believe."