Chapter 68 "Media" is more powerful?

China has long been an ancient civilization in the eyes of Westerners.Many truths, no matter how well we fulfill them in terms of behavior, have already shouted out the words in theory, such as "lawlessness" and "no rules, no circle".If there is no "law" in a society, there will be chaos and unrest, but even if a society has "law", if there is no supervision force, someone will do bad things and no one will go around to yell about it, and the whole world will know about it. In this way, any kind of "law" may be useless, and it will not be able to restrain bad attempts and hands and feet.

When I was in Hong Kong, I felt the power and ruthlessness of the "law" in Hong Kong society time and time again, but the media, its existence and power are stronger and more ruthless than the "law", at least it is the assistant and eyeliner of legal punishment and scouts. In 1974, Hong Kong established a special institution, the Independent Commission Against Corruption. The birth of this institution was firstly the media's outrage of the people. Afterwards, Hong Kong gradually became "one of the cleanest places in the world." The role of "media" is still seen as the bottom line.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Hong Kong experienced drastic changes, with a sharp increase in population and economic development. However, "the devil in troubled times prevails everywhere", and bribery, corruption, and corruption are rampant and unscrupulous in various public service agencies.How could Hong Kong society be so bad at that time?How can Hong Kong be so "clean" today?In order to find some connections between the past and today, I visited several elderly people after I came to Hong Kong. All the old people still remember the Hong Kong society decades ago. Both adults and children know what "tea money" is. , What is "throat opening fee", what is "pie ghost" and "black money".An old immigrant once told me this way: Back then, if someone in someone’s family had a sudden emergency, didn’t they have to call an ambulance?The family members are in a hurry, but you are in a hurry, but the ambulance personnel are not in a hurry. They have to ask the patient's family members first, which is "tea money". The fire brigade arrived at the accident site in half a day, and before turning on the water pipe (faucet) to fight the fire, they had to ask for benefits first, which is the "pipe opening fee".At that time, the police force was the department with the worst corruption in Hong Kong society. The "policemen" who took bribes all covered pornography, gambling, and drugs. Dare to say...

In 1973, the Chief Superintendent of the Hong Kong Police Headquarters, Godber, was discovered by relevant departments to have a wealth of more than 4.3 million Hong Kong dollars, which was suspected to be from corruption.At the time, the Attorney General asked Godber to explain the source of the money to the government within a week, but Godber knew that a catastrophe was imminent, so he quickly fled to the UK ahead of schedule.Godber's absconding immediately erupted the long-simmering public grievances.Students and citizens gathered in Victoria Park to protest against the government's inability to fight corruption, holding banners reading "Anti-corruption, Catch Godber" and marched on the street.At this time, the Hong Kong government and intellectuals suddenly realized that "unless the anti-corruption department can exist independently from the police, the public will never believe that the government is indeed capable of fighting corruption."In this way, in 1974, the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption was born. The first important task of the "ICAC" after its establishment was to successfully extradite Godber back to Hong Kong for trial in 1975. After that, the sky in Hong Kong became "clear" step by step. .

Today's Hong Kong hospitals and fire brigades no longer dare to accept "tea money" and "throat opening fees". "Because of the strict investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the eyes of the media are everywhere—— Looking at the history of Hong Kong news reports and "media supervision", the "fourth power" is not as fierce as the Western developed countries shouted, but this society generally accepts that the reason why the bad guys are arrogant is because the good guys stand by and the good guys stand by. In many cases, it is because the media is invisible and "absent" when they should appear, which leads to them being "unaware" of the scandal at all.Therefore, under the three-power structure of "legislative", "judicial" and "administrative" in Hong Kong, the people's insistence on "press freedom" has never been relaxed.

Why should I say that the "media" in Hong Kong is more powerful?Because by my side, I encounter local reporters unexpectedly every day during interviews. I have already explained their professional status and news sensitivity in the first chapter of this book, so I won’t repeat them here. But the courage of Hong Kong reporters, I say Their eyes and ears are dedicated to the ugliness of various societies, including the injustices and conspiracies that may be expected to occur, and sometimes they are really "picking the bones" when they act. Let’s also talk about the Hong Kong Legislative Council’s review of the “Interception of Communications and Surveillance Bill” in August 2006. Didn’t I just attend the meeting on that day?At that time, my attention was almost all attracted by the performance of the members of the opposite sides of the Legislative Council, and I had no time to pay attention to him, but the whereabouts of a reporter were too bold and too secretive, so I couldn't help but pay attention to him.This reporter was a photographer for a certain newspaper in Hong Kong. He was still sitting next to me at first, but after a while, he disappeared and got into the passage between the public and the reporters' auditorium on both sides of the "deliberation hall". There were several low glass windows in the middle, and he squatted behind the glass windows to take pictures, patiently aiming at the venue below with a telephoto lens.I don't know what he was shooting at that time, but I know that the Hong Kong Legislative Council stipulates that reporters and all observers are not allowed to take pictures or take pictures in real time, but this young man is holding a huge camera in his hand, which seems to be holding a machine gun. Like soldiers in the army.

In the morning of the next day, "Oriental Daily" published such a photo. I looked at it and said, "Wow, the environment and atmosphere are all too familiar. It is the Legislative Council on the first day." In the "deliberation hall", he didn't listen carefully, but his thoughts had already wandered off, and he was fiddling with a computer on his desk.What is this congressman looking at?If there is no "telephoto" detection, I can't confirm it from a distance.However, the photographer in Hong Kong grasped the "current situation" and obtained "evidence" in his hands, so his photos had such a "description": "The Legislative Council is discussing the monitoring draft intensely, and Ying Yaokang actually went to the travel website ".In addition to the "photo description", there is also a small article on the left hand side of the color photo. Although the article is not abusive, it is enough to be "disgusting": "Falling in Love at a Meeting-Ying Yaokang is outrageous", which made me read it in a hurry. I couldn't stop laughing:

"In order for the government to pass the monitoring bill, all the staff of the Security Bureau canceled their vacations. There is no room for loss. The Permanent Secretary Ying Yaohong also followed the Secretary of the Security Bureau Li Siu-kwong to sit in the Legislative Council for a full day. I don't know if he is facing hundreds of amendments. The case is too annoying, or sitting is too boring, this "tomorrow star" is brave enough to openly visit the Taiwan Travel Network in the conference hall during the debate, and read the travel information of Tainan Kaohsiung. The big words on the website read "Kaohsiung Love River" '. There is a map of Taiwan in the lower right corner, the draft was not approved (on that day), he obviously had a holiday in his heart, and flew to a tourist destination with his family..."

I laughed at the Hong Kong reporter's "cat and mouse", and I laughed even more at the "good show" in this scene. Why did I catch up with myself? Of course, after laughing, think about yourself, I am also a journalist, although the game of "cat and mouse" is not my preference, but if I see bad people and bad things that are clearly in front of me, I can take the initiative to expose, Exposure, dare to fight against "bad people and bad things"?In contrast, how many times are there unconscious or passive "absences"? The above example is just a small matter, but this small matter is very intriguing...

In December 2006, the French-headquartered organization "Reporters Without Borders" announced the list of global press freedom rankings for the year. Among them, Hong Kong ranked 58th among 168 countries and regions, and mainland China only ranked 163rd.Of course, the media in the Mainland and Hong Kong are not comparable in many respects. In the past 30 years of China’s reform and opening up, the lives of ordinary people have undergone earth-shaking changes. All problems must be subject to this premise, and this "premise" requires a basically stable situation. In 2003, the "SARS" epidemic ravaged China, and the relevant departments blocked the news from the outside and inside for several days, which caused a "natural disaster" to gradually add a little "man-made disaster" color.Hong Kong society is very surprised by this: "If some government officials are afraid of causing trouble, they are used to reporting good news but not bad news for the sake of protecting the U.S., which is understandable. What about the media? What were the media doing at the time?!"

The citizens of Hong Kong do not allow the media to be "absent" from any kind of social problems or conflicts, and cannot bear the lack of "transparency" of information in the society for a minute. Therefore, no matter what happens, politics, economy, people's livelihood, and security require the media to rush to current affairs. At the first scene, this kind of market demand has forged every reporter in Hong Kong to be brave to charge forward, and they will not, let alone be "avoiders". For a long time, the "openness" of Hong Kong's media without human interference, the "promptness" of information, and the "global nature" of information are all enviable.Facing such a media, it is my sincerity to say "great". Although facing such a media, I found that it also has flaws. "...