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The intrepid Snells Beach reporters review their Hong Kong film on a tablet. From left, Libby Keenan, Ashton Henderson and Leah Waterhouse.Police officers battling frenzied protesters in Hong Kong joined those very same protests on their days off, a Horizon School team of budding journalists discovered.
Police officers battling frenzied protesters in Hong Kong joined those very same protests on their days off, a Horizon School team of budding journalists discovered.
Students Ashton Henderson, 12, Libby Keenan, 12, and Leah Waterhouse, 13, were among a delegation of students from the Mahurangi East school attending an education conference in Beijing last month.
They stopped en route in Hong Kong and found themselves in the centre of a region torn apart by violent confrontations over perceived Chinese government threats to civil liberties.
Eager to spot an educational opportunity, Horizon principal Helen Pearson gave students a brief history lesson and overview of the events happening around them, pointing out they were likely at a significant turning point in Hong Kong’s history.
After struggling to engage the students’ interest, she asked them to venture outside and video record interviews with people on the streets to get their reactions to the upheavals.
“The students were suddenly extremely engaged,” she says.
But the assignment had its challenges. First, the students had to find people who could speak English and most of those who did so refused to speak on camera, lest they be identified and subject to a government backlash.
They also urged the students themselves to be careful, in case they fell foul of the authorities.
Leah says that did cause some nervousness, but the students pressed on, believing that being able to share what they learned back home with fellow students and parents, and creating more awareness of the situation, was worth it.
Among those who did talk to the students were three teenage girls, who had set up their own website and were regularly posting their videos documenting examples of police brutality towards protestors.
“They were crying when they spoke. They were telling us people as young as 14 were participating in the protests. It was really sad,” Libby says.
An animated man in his thirties said the protesters were fighting for freedom of speech, freedom of expression and democracy, and he said 80 per cent of people in Hong Kong agreed with the aim of the protests, even if they did not all have the courage to protest themselves.
He said even off-duty police officers were protesting.
“The days they have to work, they will be stopping the protesters, but when they don’t have to work, they go and protest and do the exact same things the protesters are doing,” he said.
As part of their video, the students also took footage of posters, graffiti and rubbish-strewn streets related to the troubles.
One piece of graffiti read: “If you pass the law, we will start a war and you can’t kill us all.”
Confrontations intensified following the death of two protesters and the students could witness how events were being reported in mainland China.
Although news channels such as the BBC were available, what was shown to the viewer was selective.
Footage of protesters throwing rocks and vandalising cars was acceptable, but television screens would suddenly fill with static when there was a switch to more in-depth analysis. Screens would return to normal when coverage moved on to other stories.
Ashton says the assignment has made students realise that there is a much wider world out there and things are very different to how they are in New Zealand.
Libby and Leah say the exercise made them appreciate NZ’s democratic freedoms and that these should not be taken for granted.
“Everyone here wants more and more and more, but we need to be grateful for what we have,” Leah says.
