In a statement on its Facebook page, Macau Journalists Association (AJM) has called for improvements in the way in which police release information concerning crimes and accidents.
The statement came after an announcement issued by the Public Security Police Force (PSP) following a car accident in the pedestrian area in front of the main entrance of Hotel Lisboa.
According to videos that have gone viral over social media platforms, the car was captured squeezing through a gap between a minibus and a seven-seater vehicle, running a red traffic signal, almost hitting a moving taxi at the Grand Lisboa Hotel crossroad, before crashing against a greening area near Hotel Lisboa.
What is dissatisfying, the AJM said, is that after the almost-fatal accident, the PSP only issued a text message minimizing the severity of the car crash. The text message read: “Unverified information: A traffic accident involving two private vehicles and a bus happened near Hotel Lisboa on Avenida de Lisboa. No injured were sent to the hospital [and] nobody was trapped. The PSP is handling the matter.”
Announcements of crime and public security incidents by the police to the press are normally conveyed through text messages.
The AJM also noted that the police released more information 15 hours after the accident and only after journalists inquired about the matter. The supplementary message sent by the police provided some extra details: the vehicle had in fact run two red signals and crashed while making a turn; the driver is a local aged about 30, surnamed Fong and was referred to the Public Prosecutions Office for further investigations.
Amid netizens accusing local media outlets of self-censorship as news reports were not publicized shortly after the crash, the AJM defended the industry’s professionalism by explaining that journalists can receive as many as 50 messages from the city’s two police authorities per day, making it impossible for journalists to investigate each and every case.
The statement said that improvements should be made by the police in the manner of release, including by not over-simplifying details, which could influence journalists’ judgment about the newsworthiness of each notification.
