The Young Reporter

People not satisfied with new scheme for low-income families
- 2017-12-07
- Politics
- The Young Reporter
- By: Susan Gao、Melissa KO、Kenji ChanEdited by: Susan Gao、Melissa KO
- 2017-12-07
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has introduced several policies to ease the plight of low-income families in her maiden policy address today, while many of those families are dissatisfied and argue for more. The city's first female leader proposed to "significantly enhancing" Low-income Working Family Allowance (LIFA) starting from April 1, 2018. Under the new policy, with a few more requirements being satisfied, the monthly payment for a four-person household with two children will increase by 23% from the current $2,600 to $3,200, said the Chief Executive. Ivan Wong Yun-Tat, the Vice Secretary of Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre and the district councilor of Kwai Tsing, said that Carrie Lam has responded to the grassroots' aspiration but "the benchmark duration of working hours for the scheme is still higher than expected." The new scheme requires all family members in a four-person household to have no less than 192 total monthly working hours, whereas Wong said 72 working hours per month is the most ideal amount. An open forum discussing Carrie Lam's first policy address was held in Kwun Tong Methodist Social Service today. It was jointly organised by 20 social welfare concern groups with Wong as one of the organisers. The neighbourhood, several political parties and concern groups turned out en masse the event, urging the government to do more for the disadvantaged groups. Mrs. Lam, a full-time housewife having been received the allowance for several years said she was not satisfied with the scheme because her daughter has autism. She suggested that the government should do more, especially to support those low-income families of a child with special needs. Anthony Wong, the business director of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, said the families of "N have-nots" tended to benefit the least from the updated …

Hong Kong Pride Parade 2017: Goodbye to LGBTI discrimination
- 2017-11-25
- Society
- The Young Reporter
- By: Li Wing Kiu、Elisa Luk、Japson Melanie Jane、Ezra CheungEdited by: Choy York Borg Paulus、Cecilia Wong、Daisy Lee
- 2017-11-25
The Pride Parade 2017 kicked off at two pm today, with hanging lucky scrolls in Victoria Park, signifying the smoothing out of the path, for people of all sexualities. The slogan for this year's parade is "turn the tide, walk with pride". Gary Fan Kwok-wai, current member of the Sai Kung District Council, believes that sexual minority rights should be legally protected. "Everyone should be equally treated, including sexual minorities," said Fan. Professor Alfred Chan, the chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission, said there will be legal consultations concerning transgender rights next year. Professor Chan said everyone, especially the government, should cooperate to achieve equality in society. "Everyone is born equal," said Kwok Ka-ki, member of the Legislative Council. However, Kwok thinks that the road to equality for the LGBTQI community is always not an easy one in Hong Kong.

Flexitarian: an easy way to go green
- 2017-11-21
- Health & Environment
- The Young Reporter
- By: Sharon Pun、Candice WongEdited by: Richelia Yeung、Ellen He
- 2017-11-21
To become a flexible vegetarian in Hong Kong "I'd like to have the Pesto Chicken Salad, but please take away the chicken," said Ms. Chan at a bakery cafe. Her friend surprisingly asked her, "What? You're taking away the best part of the dish!" This is a situation often encountered by Chan Wun, but her diet habit is different from that of traditional "vegetarians". She is a member of a rising group, "flexitarians", a combination of "flexible" and "vegetarians". The number of flexitarians rose from 5% in 2008 to 22% in 2016, while vegetarians only account for 3% of Hong Kong's population. Up till 2017, over 1,000 restaurants in Hong Kong have joined an initiative programme to offer vegetarian-friendly menus, according to a social startup, Green Monday. "In order to lose weight, I had become a vegetarian for around two months during high school," said Ms. Chan, an 18-year-old university student. She had no choice but to constantly ordered Indian curry since it was the only vegetarian choice at school. Things become more difficult during family gatherings. When Ms. Chan's mother cooks vegetarian meals for her non-vegetarian father and brother often complain that the meals lacked protein. "It is difficult to avoid eating meat especially when we are living in Chinese culture where specific cuisines and dishes will be offered during celebratory events and festivals," said Ms. Chan. "Then I decided to quit because of inconvenience, time cost and expense." Instead of being a strict vegetarian, she opted for a flexitarian-style diet. In fact, the problem was not faced just by Ms. Chan when she was a vegetarian. To Hiu-yan, 20, a university student who has been a vegetarian for two years, said that the once-athlete started this eating habit to keep fit. Ms. To said she faced limited …

Hong Kong's first solar-powered food truck wins catering award
- 2017-11-07
- Health & Environment
- The Young Reporter
- By: Holly Chik、Michelle NgEdited by: Choy York Borg Paulus
- 2017-11-07
Hong Kong's first green food truck won the Gold Prize of Catering in Traditional Cuisine of CLP's Greenplus Award Programme. The solar-power panels, which cost over $20,000, are installed on the vehicle's roof to supply electricity for fans and for customers to charge their electronic devices. "The eye-catching panels also demonstrates the eco-friendliness of the vehicle whereas other energy-saving measures are usually not obvious," said Trevor Ng, Managing Director of Pat Chun, who has been operating the $800,000 truck since March this year. The company also adopts an energy management system which can be operated with a smartphone to improve energy efficiency. "With the system, we can collect real-time energy consumption data and adjust the use of electricity," said Ng. For example, they can use the remaining heat generated by the automatic rice-fryer to cook their stewed beef brisket. To reduce interior temperature, they opted for a heat-resistant automatic rice-fryer. The solar panels on the roof also serve as a heat barrier during hotter days. A centrifugal range hood and a grease trap are also installed to collect used cooking oil that will be converted to biodiesel for the car. Ng said they save about 25% on their electricity bill after implementing these measures. Such environmental protection measures "mitigate climate change, lower business cost and create new business opportunities," said Philip Yung Wai-hung, Permanent Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development (Commerce, Industry and Tourism).

The Silent Struggle of Trafficking and Slavery victims in South Asia
- 2017-10-26
- The Young Reporter
- By: Erin ChanEdited by: Winnie Ngai、Jianne Soriano
- 2017-10-26
Reporters: Erin Chan and Sherry Zhu Editors: Jianne Soriano and Winnie Ngai The HKBU-SOPA Award Winners Forum has invited Nita Bhalla, a South Asia correspondent at Thomson Reuters to talk about Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery in South Asia at Hong Kong Baptist University this Thursday. Human trafficking is the second largest crime in the world with about 32 billion people fall victim to it every year, according to Bhalla. About 60 per cent of human trafficking victims are women and children, especially in North Africa and South East Asia. Six hundred thousand to 8000,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year. Worse still, the average price of a slave has increased from $40,0000 to $90,0000 today. As Bhalla explained, modern slavery comes in different shapes and sizes. The common ones include forced marriage, commercial exploitation, sexual exploitation and debt bondage. "In the US, prisoners being forced to work may be considered as a form of contemporary slavery. Likewise, children working in the agricultural sector in Pakistan, which is required by law, can also be counted," said Bhalla. "People being trafficked were told that they get to work in a nice and wealthy home, you get three meals a day. But most cases is that they have to work 24/7, they may have no food and freedom of movement," she added. She added that having documents withhold is one common practice among people bounded by slavery. "In the Gulf State, for example, there is this Kafala system in which employers can take away your passports for two years. The employer worries that slaves may switch jobs and therefore pay in advance to an agent so that the employee immediately becomes a bonded worker, " said Bhalla. Bhalla illustrated her experience of witnessing a 19-year-old girl struggling in silence, …

Hip-hop geeks leap forward with local rap battles
- 2017-10-26
- Culture & Leisure
- The Young Reporter
- By: Daisy Lee、Jianne SorianoEdited by: Daisy Lee、Jianne Soriano
- 2017-10-26
At eleven o'clock on Saturday night, when it's past bedtime for the city, the nightlife hub in Hong Kong's Lan Kwai Fong just kicked off its day. Standing at the entrance of an underground club, Hector "SCF-SAiNT" Telmo, in a plain black t-shirt with the words "Straight Outta Home Kong" was busily distributing leaflets for his hip-hop show held later night. Unlike others, he's looking for the chance to break the deadlock of hip-hop on the 'cultural desert' by organising regular rap battles in Central hipster clubs. Straight Outta Home Kong is a underground music project co-founded by two non-Chinese rappers, Telmo and Mohit "DJ Mojito" Kailandasani. Telmo has been stuck for a while in developing his career as a rapper. "Nobody opened the doors for us, nobody gave us opportunities. We felt like outcasts, so our mission was 'how do we bridge the gap, how do we connect, how we get to work with them,'" he said. Though the road to success is not as simple as he expected, the 25-year-old didn't stop. Instead, he started searching for way-out for his fellows—to connect Cantonese, English and Tagalog rappers, who were also looking for a place in the hip-hop industry for a long time. "Now that there's a platform, an opportunity and the fact that the younger generation can see this...at least they have something to look up to, especially on the ethnic minority side," he added. Invited by Telmo, Eric "Heartgrey" So, a Hong Kong beatboxer who debuted about 10 years ago, sees hip-hop battles held in bars as a chance 'to show [their] passion and energy to the local people'. "It's already hard to do music in Hong Kong so if there's a platform...why don't you perform and participate?" Describing the times when he was still starting as …

SOPA award winner says patience and ethics is key to investigative stories
- 2017-10-26
- The Young Reporter
- By: Michael Shum、Kenji ChanEdited by: Nicole Kwok
- 2017-10-26
Reported by Michael Shum and Kenji Chan Edited by Nicole Kwok Aun Pheap, reporter at The Cambodia Daily and co-winner of the SOPA Award for Excellence in investigative reporting, said doing an investigative story could be dangerous and demanding, but staying patient and ethical is crucial in getting the story done. Being a journalist in Cambodia, Pheap sees how corrupted the Cambodian government is. He had once entered a military area with his colleagues in Zsombor, where they found a bunch of luxury-grade timber stocked there. They were discovered by the military and were arrested as well as interrogated. "The military officials said they would not allow us to leave if we don't reveal our intentions. We disclosed our identities as journalists," said Pheap, "they suddenly became friendly to us." "They invited us for coffee and offered gasoline, hoping that we will not write anything about the luxury wood stocked in the military base," he added. "The military commander found us a driver to a guest house, but we left the city right after the driver drove away, for we are afraid of the commander changing his mind. After that, we put everything into the article." said Pheap. He also received a direct request from a government official before, asking him not to publish an negative coverage on government officials. But instead of giving in, he reported the situation to his chief-editor. The Daily decided to disclose that whole conversation between him and the government official to the public. "I always got hung up on after revealing that I am a journalist," Pheap added. "Government officials will call and scold us with very bad words." "However, I usually try to stay friendly. I want them to answer my questions," he said. …

Wall Street Journal Head of Visuals introduces content-driven multimedia journalism at SOPA Forum
- 2017-10-26
- The Young Reporter
- By: Raphael Blet、Sharon Pun、Candice WongEdited by: Melissa KO、Emily Cheung、Ellen He
- 2017-10-26
It is important for media to be content-driven – certain medium should be adopted because it suits to tell the story, not because it looks fancy, said MinJung Kim, a Society of Publishers in Asia Awards winner in 2017. Speaking at an award winners' forum this morning at Hong Kong Baptist University, Ms Kim, the Head of Visuals for the Wall Street Journal, shared some insights of her work. She emphasised the importance for news organisations to have multi-platform multimedia resources. "People consume more news online, and on mobile. You have to consider different platforms when planning," she said. In addition, she highlighted that collaboration and advance planning are the keys because various stakeholders have to be involved in multimedia projects, including editors, reporters and IT specialists. "On average, it takes two to four months to complete a project," she said. Despite acknowledging the fact that larger news organisations are more privileged in a digital age, Ms Kim said that the smaller ones can still create quality multimedia journalistic works. The SOPA forum will continue until this Friday.

Dark sides of Taiwan's pelagic industry uncovered
- 2017-10-26
- The Young Reporter
- By: Kobie Li、Dorothy MaEdited by: Celia Lai
- 2017-10-26
A report revealing the abuse of migrant fishermen and the dark sides of the country's pelagic industry won 2017 Excellence in Investigative Reporting and in Human Rights Reporting of SOPA Award. Cheng Han Wen, a journalist from the Taiwanese non-profit newsagent The Reporter, said their work drove the government to look into the working condition of migrant crewmen, during her speech on the HKBU-SOPA Award Winners Forum in Hong Kong Baptist University yesterday. They traced back the death of Supriyanto, a Indonesian father-of-two, who came to Taiwan alone to support his family but lost his life on a fishing vessel. He was proclaimed "dead of disease". Reading unconvincing official document and proof about his death, Cheng started to investigate the case for the truth about the treatment to migrant fishermen in Taiwan. According to a report of Greenpeace Taiwan, over 1.6 million foreign fishermen work for distant water fisheries in Taiwan with a monthly wage of around US$100 ($780). Given the fierce competition in the domestic fishing industry, lives of labour are perceived cheaper than fish, especially when it comes to foreign fishermen, said Cheng. Cheng elaborated on the recruitment of the fisherman. She said they were mostly recruited by the agents in South-east Asia. Once they arrived the airport, they were brought to a dorm with poor living environment. "They are locked away from people like a criminal, " she said. The agents will arrange fisherman to get on the fishing boat as soon as possible to prevent them from escaping. In most cases, they can only get off two to three years later. "They are often abused by the captain and treated inhumanely," she said. From getting on board a ship to plying timelessly, what those crew members earned will only be exploited by brokers, agents …

Uncovering invisible slavery: the underbelly of Taiwan's fishery industry
- 2017-10-26
- The Young Reporter
- By: Michelle Ng、Ezra Cheung、Alexandra LinEdited by: Choy York Borg Paulus
- 2017-10-26
"Taiwan is an island, surrounded by ocean, but it seems that most people are not familiar with its fishing industry," Cheng Han-wen, a Taiwanese investigative journalist said. Initially, Cheng and her team wanted to write about the decline in capture fisheries. However, when they were carrying out an interview with a fishery overseer, they discovered the industry's enslavement of young Indonesian fishermen by accident. "The stories about the exploitation of fishermen are rarely covered," added Cheng, "because the Taiwanese media often focus on the epic grandeur of its offshore fishery." The discovery later guided them to an Indonesian village, where eight in ten villagers said they had been to Taiwan, as some of them were proficient in Mandarin. A villager who used to work in Taiwan's fishing industry was mentally traumatised; another "jumped to his death", according to Cheng. Cheng and her team have won three SOPA awards in 2017 on reporting about the exploitation in the Taiwanese fishing industry . "The ship master has also beaten me up," Cheng quoted from her interview with Supriyanto, a fishery labourer from Central Java, Indonesia and was later found dead in a Taiwanese commercial offshore fishing vessel due to sepsis. Reduced to a bag of bones, his dead body was then sent back to his home in Central Java. Although his story had been covered by several outlets, no one went as deep as The Reporter: An award-winning alternative media composed of ten journalists and three photojournalists, specialising in investigative and in-depth reporting. "If a fisherman and a fish were to drop into the ocean at the same time, no doubt the fish would be rescued first." said Cheng. Despite receiving international recognition for the story, the young journalist still feels powerless about the issue because the coverage has not brought about immediate change in the society. …