Plastic Nurdle spill – the SCMP has failed the people of Hong Kong

If you look at photographs of the vast majority of volunteers who are cleaning the beaches, they are local Chinese residents. This is something that has puzzled us since the start of the cleanup. Where are all the expatriates? What was wrong? Didn’t the expatriate community care! So we started to ask around. We found out that no one knew.  

 “what crisis”, they asked, “there’s nothing in the newspapers”

“wasn’t there something in Discovery Bay a few days ago. Nothing serious.”

When we briefed the Apple Daily Newspaper reporters they were excited. They knew this was something big and they worked hard on it. Their full page release of the story galvanized the community into action. We knew this was the turning point in the crisis. Within two days, thousands of people had volunteered their time and effort to help save Hong Kong.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) had the same story and effectively did nothing. In fact, the SCMP effectively had a scoop and did nothing. They were one of the first newspapers we contacted because we thought they cared. How mistaken we were! All they’ve tried to do was find fault with the government or fault with SINOPEC, and when they couldn’t get us to say anything bad, they went to their usual network of negative non-entities to get the negative quotes they wanted.

Well, they should be ashamed of themselves. The SCMP cost the cleanup much needed support.

So my question to the editor of the SCMP is this. Will you accept responsibility for this failure, do the honorable thing and resign. Alternatively, if you don’t have the guts to do the honorable thing, will you make a front page apology to the people of Hong Kong in your newspaper? Something along the following lines:

The South China Morning Post would like to apologise.

We did not do our job properly.

We have failed the people of Hong Kong.

We are sorry.

We await your response with interest!

（香港）膠粒污染 – 傳媒在哪裡？

近日有很多對政府處理膠粒污染手法的批評與指控都是不公平及沒事實根據的。

本人、Gary或Tracey都沒有因政府對今次污染危機的應對而感到失望，雖然這是所有傳媒查詢的焦點所在。我們真正感到失望的，是傳媒對調查及報導今次污染事件缺乏興趣，以及他們的焦點只放在如何令政府尷尬。我們曾懇求傳媒報導這次污染危機，但他們並不感興趣。

事件時間表

7月25日 – 在愉景灣發現膠粒污染

7月26日 – 通知南華早報及英文虎報

7月27日 – 南華早報在其不起眼的「城市分頁」報導有關事件

7月28日 – 通知香港各大中、英文媒體，以及國際媒體

國際媒體的回覆 – 沒有興趣報導，除非你能透過此事揭露香港政府或中石化的問題與瘡疤

過了幾日，甚麼壞東西都出來了。

8月8日 – 南華早報的社論 – 對膠粒污染的靜默令人不安

(文章：處理膠粒污染事故欠透明責無旁貸 No excuse for lack of transparency in plastic pellets case)

對南華早報的編輯之要求

編輯先生，你是對的 – 請問你能夠向香港市民解釋為何你選擇靜默嗎？或許你也應該聯絡香港其他的傳媒，尋求他們的解釋。公眾有權知道！

給國際媒體的信息

你們需要改善招聘技巧，因為目前你們的員工並不稱職。

給香港人的信息

問問你自己：怎麼可能出現「隱瞞」呢？傳媒由發現事故的第二日已經清楚知道整個事件！這次事故真正令人失望的是傳媒，因為他們對事實沒有興趣，沒有能力成為具調查力的新聞媒體，也沒有能力發現極具新聞價值的消息，即使一切已經清楚地放在他們眼前。

Plastic Nurdle spill – Hong Kong – where were the press?

There has been much criticism of the government for their handling of the spill of Plastic Nurdles, much of it unfair and unfounded.

Neither Gary, Tracey or myself are unhappy with the Government’s response to this crisis, even though this is one of the main angles of all press queries. The people we are really disappointed with are the press, for their lack of interest in investigating and reporting the incident and their sole interest in trying to embarrass the Government. We pleaded with the press to report on what we told them was a crisis and they weren’t interested.

Time table of events

25 July – the spill was discovered in Discovery Bay.

26 July – SCMP and HK Standard were notified.

27 July – report on the incident appears in the SCMP, hidden away in the City Section of the SCMP.

28 July – release to both English and Chinese press in Hong Kong, as well as international press.

Response from the international press – Not an interesting story for us, unless you can get dirt on the Government or SINOPEC.

A few days later, all hell breaks loose.

8 August – Editorial in SCMP – Silence on plastic pellets bred unease.

Request to the editor of the SCMP

Well Mr. Editor, you are right – can you please explain to the public of Hong Kong the reasons for your silence. Perhaps you could contact the editors of the other papers in Hong Kong as well and seek their explanations – the public have a right to know!

Message to the international press

You need to improve your hiring techniques, because at the moment your staff are not up to the job.

Message to everyone in Hong Kong

Ask yourself this - How can there be a cover up, when the press were fully in the picture from Day 2 of the discovery – the real people who have failed Hong Kong are the press, because they are not interested in facts, they are not capable of investigative journalism and they are incapable of recognizing a scoop, even when it is handed to them on a plate.