Jason Chao criticizes UM for ‘violation of press freedom’

Regarding the recent dispute between reporters and students who were filmed after being woken during a late night fire alarm evacuation at the University of Macau (UM)’s Hengqin campus, the UMAC Watchdog led by New Macau Association leader Jason Chao criticized the university for showing hostility to the media and an alleged violation of press freedom.
At a press conference held yesterday, Chao condemned the university and students’ stance for “stopping reporters” filming during the evacuation, stressing that “it is unreasonable to use ‘privacy’ or ‘private premises’ as an excuse.”
“It is just counter-intuitive to consider the situation of evacuees in a fire evacuation as utterly their ‘private life,’” he said, adding that “the involvement of significant public interest in this fire incident was unquestionable, as the construction and maintenance of the facility concerned were at the public expense.”
“Their using such excuses is a very, very dangerous act, hitting the freedom of press. Because such excuses can be magnified endlessly [and applied to any other situations],” warned the activist. “It’s not only in the UM, in general, the Macau government has shown a lack of respect for the rule of law,” he added.
Chao further stressed that the university authorities didn’t want such an incident to be exposed, whereas the rector Zhao Wei had previously shown disrespect to reporters.
“The Watchdog urges Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam to supervise the university to fully implement the policy of enhancing transparency and ending hostility to the press, with a view to effective prevention of violation of press freedom from happening in the future,” he stated.
As the Times reported previously, a foreign exchange student, dormitory authorities and security guards from UM were embroiled in a conflict with a local journalist who attempted to photograph students fleeing from a residential college where a small fire broke out last week.

Alexis Tam calls for mutual understanding

The Secretary took a stance at the dispute yesterday, calling for mutual tolerance and understanding between the students and the reporters. Tam stressed that “the reason why he made a comment on the matter was that he respects the freedom of press.” Nevertheless, he said he understood the students’ refusal to be filmed under the circumstances, and called for an end to hurting both sides’ feelings, as the case has been reported to the police to handle.