A television news reporter allegedly assaulted by being soaked with water guns during a Thai new year celebration in Hong Kong would not have given a statement to police about the incident had he not been told to do so, a court heard on Friday.
Timothy Li Tin-yiu told Kowloon City Court he was not so disturbed by the three alleged perpetrators soaking him at the Songkran festival last year that he felt immediate police intervention was necessary.
Li, who was testifying for the prosecution, said he did not file a report with police but was nonetheless interviewed by them and asked to help secure the convictions of the three men, after the force launched an investigation into alleged disruption to public order.
Police arrested a YouTuber and two of his friends on suspicion that they had “ulterior motives” for targeting officers and reporters from TVB, the city’s biggest free-to-air broadcaster, during the celebration in Kowloon City on April 9, 2023.
Songkran marks the Thai New Year, and the old practice of pouring water to wash away sins and bad luck has evolved into mass water fights on the streets. The event returned to Kowloon City, home to hundreds of Thai people, in 2023 after the Covid-19 pandemic put celebrations on hold for three years.
The three suspects – taxi driver Tsang Wai-shing, 26, clerk Ip Ka-kin, 27, and adult products retailer Yuen Tsz-kin, 31 – face three counts of assaulting a police constable and two of common assault for allegedly using water guns to attack three auxiliary constables and the two journalists, Li and Ng Ka-hin.
Social media influencer Tsang, known as “brave dog”, and Yuen also face a charge of common assault for attacking a TVB cameraman, Tam Wing-man.
The trio denied all six counts on Friday before Magistrate Philip Chan Chee-fai.
Kowloon City district councillor Rita Lau Yuen-yin, a coordinator of the 2023 Songkran celebration, told the court the three defendants violated the organiser’s rules by targeting “uniformed personnel” at the scene and splashing water outside the permitted zone.
But defence lawyers argued there was nothing illegal about the trio indulging themselves at the carnival and suggested the rules had neither been strictly enforced nor observed by other participants.
Li, a reporter on TVB’s English channel Pearl, said the three accused targeted him and his colleagues when they tried to film a news clip at a section of South Wall Road, the venue for the water battles.
He said he felt irritation in his eyes and discomfort in his ears and mouth, but decided to put on a smile nonetheless as the crew searched for a better location to roll the camera.
“I didn’t want to act in an unprofessional manner,” the witness explained. “It wouldn’t do me any good by making known my discontent on the spot.”
Joey Yuen Wing-lam, legal counsel for Tsang, suggested Li was not threatened by the defendants’ acts and did not find it necessary to make an immediate complaint to police.
The witness agreed and said he only felt bothered and uncomfortable by the persistent splashes, but stressed he and his colleagues had clearly told their pursuers to leave them alone.
Barrister Dick Wong Chun-man, for Yuen, pointed out that some children had also gone after the reporters and shot jets of water from even closer range than the three defendants.
Wong argued the reporters had put themselves at the centre of the “conflict zone” and suggested Li did not feel the defendants’ acts were so serious as to constitute abuse.
“So, if you were not asked to give a statement, you would not have made a complaint whatsoever?” the counsel asked. Li answered in the affirmative.
The trial has been scheduled for five days.
