Victory and justice reigned for Miss Vivian Chih Wan Wan who was fully vindicated by the Appeal Court which found no evidence against her directly or by inference in the politicized moon cake incident in 1994.( See Appeal Court judgment dated 17.10.1996)
Apology is owed to Miss Vivian Chih Wan Wan by the press which had mistakenly publicized the wrongful and out-dated magistracy finding of her role in the moon cake incident . The irresponsible press failed to report the new Appeal Court finding in 1996 which had completely cleared the name of Miss Vivian Chih .
The appalling standard of reporting standard of the press in Hong Kong was demonstrated in their general failure to report about the victorious appeal hearing of Miss Vivian Chih in 1996 in which she was declared innocent concerning the moon cake incident which occurred during her election campaign in 1994.
Although the initial wrongful magistracy finding was highly publicized by most newspaper, there was amazingly few newspaper which had correctly reported the reversion of the court result after the appeal hearing in 1996.
Such failure to report on some once highly publicized matter ( which understandably would affect immensely the reputation and goodwill of a person ( particularly for a public figure such as a District Board member or an election candidate) shows fairly and squarely the irresponsibility and serious professional incompetence of the press in Hong Kong.
Or worst still, perhaps the press in Hong Kong is so geared to just report on tragedy and bad news ( which is believed to attract public attention and thus increase the sale volume more easily than good news) that the press neglects or deliberately chooses not to report on good news , in total disregard of how such failure to report fully and correctly will affect the interest of the people involved .
The law governing the professional ethics and competence of the press should be tightened up , with the law on defamation stepped up so as to prevent the press from committing irresponsible , defamatory , prejudicial and/ or unfair reporting.
A spokesman for public conscience