A 21-year-old man has been arrested for making online calls for people to attack TVB journalists during the Mong Kok unrest, according to the local TV station.
TVB reported that the man was suspected of posting an essay on a forum entitled “Wreck the camera and attack if you see TVB” at 5am on February 9, 2016. He was arrested in his Tin Shui Wai home Wednesday morning for accessing a computer with criminal or dishonest intent. A computer and a phone were taken away as evidence, according to local media.
There has been rising animosity against journalists recently, including a Facebook post by political group ReStart-HK posted last Thursday. The post, entitled “Our fists will treat you like how your lenses treat us,” warned of police officers pretending to be journalists and said that most mainstream media are supporters of the establishment.
It also said that – in face of any force used by the authorities – a protester “should retaliate with the same degree of force to protect oneself.”
Violent scenes between protesters and police broke out last Monday over anger at the government’s attempts to remove street hawkers. A total of 68 protesters have been arrested in relation to the unrest so far, excluding this arrest. 41 of them will be facing charges.
A police spokesperson told HKFP that they were still preparing information on the case and are unable to confirm whether the case was related to the Mong Kok clashes.
