So today, the story of the trees in sai Ying pun continues. Two weeks ago when it was useful to divert attention from the police watchdog ruling, a single tree falling down merited front page news. Today, the same trees - well 4 neighbouring trees - feature in a story, but it does not put the government in a good light. So it is relegated to a small article, deep inside the city supplement (page 4) and only a black and white photo. Also without before and after pics. The trees were 100s years old, had heritage value and were cut down without consulting an expert committee and only giving the district council 30 or 45 minutes notice.
What makes the front page?
A US diplomat saying Hk is well governed and needs to return to a 'moderate path', singapore 50 year celebrations and a mainland script writer being allowed to visit imprisoned former officials to help him prepare a drama about anti-corruption campaign that will be shown on mainland TV.
The U.S. Diplomat is likely misquoted, as reading the article one gets the sense his statement was that contrary to some claims, bickering over political reform has not made the city ungovernable. Other statements which could, but of course are not, made into the headline or quotes are 'it is healthy to have different views about how HK should be governed' and 'pro-establishment camp allegations about the U.S. Embassy dismissed as absurd and silly'.
In my view the front page items today should be 1) CY's (in my opinion reasonable) suggestion that laissez faire is outdated and government policy should change, 2) the trees, 3) increased lead blood testing capacity and a petition by affected residents for a full legco enquiry, not just one staffed by CE appointees.
Of course with the tree incident and upcoming elections there is no analysis of what exactly the district councils are for, if they have no power over local issues such as trees (just one example). Are they simply there to voice support for the government? Nor any mention of pan democrat suggestions for a tree protection law, nor mention that such was proposed over 10 years ago by a pro-BJ politician, but vetoed by the CE before it could even be voted on by legco (any proposal for a new law affecting government policy must have CE's approval before being added to legco agenda). What does that say about legco's power?
http://m.scmp.com/article/427499/leg...-special-trees
http://m.scmp.com/article/686170/dem...protection-law
Finally, it is no surprise that the mock Legco assembly by young people and interesting voting results is not reported in scmp at all.https://www.hongkongfp.com/2015/08/1...ative-council/