Hong Kong i-Cable TV journalist reporting on 10th anniversary of Sichuan earthquake kicked and beaten by two men

‘Enraged’ company calls incident ‘unacceptable’ as mainland officials bring two men to media appearance during which they apologised

Reading Time:4 minutes

Reporter Chan Ho-fai was standing outside Juyuan Middle School in Dujiangyan when he was attacked on Saturday morning. Photo: Cable TV

Published: 3:34pm, 12 May 2018Updated: 11:42pm, 12 May 2018

A Hong Kong television journalist was kicked and beaten by two men in mainland China’s southwestern Sichuan province on Saturday while reporting on the 10th anniversary of a deadly earthquake.

By the evening, mainland authorities brought two men before the media after Hong Kong officials expressed concerns about the assault. The pair apologised to the injured reporter, Chan Ho-fai.

Chan, a reporter with broadcaster i-Cable News, was standing outside Juyuan Middle School in Dujiangyan, located near the provincial capital Chengdu, when he was attacked on Saturday morning.

“I saw a group of men surrounding a car with a Commercial Radio reporter inside. When I wanted to take a picture with my phone, two men suddenly grabbed me by each arm and dragged me away,” Chan said.

The reporter was dragged from the scene to a nearby river and was repeatedly kicked and kneed in the stomach at least three times.

“While I kept calling for help, they kept kicking me in the head, and kneed me in the stomach ... They just kept kicking and wouldn’t let me go,” he said in a video recalling the incident.