It said that during a police operation to disperse protesters in Mong Kok on May 10, officers had forced journalists to kneel on the ground and to stop filming, in some cases spraying them with pepper spray at close range.
"The police stifled the right to [carry out reporting activities] by intercepting and attacking, trampl[ing] on the dignity of the media with insulting language and bad attitude," according to the HKJA statement, which was also signed by the Hong Kong Press Photographers' Association, independent commentators and journalism educators, as well as the staff unions of government broadcaster RTHK, pro-democracy Next Media, and the Ming Pao newspaper.
