Hong Kong protests: Indonesian journalist who lost her eye seeks answers from police
Indonesian video journalist Indah was hit by a projectile in one eye during the clashes between police and protesters in Hong Kong in September. Indah lost her sight due to the accident and sought answers from police
FollowHong Kong: Indonesian video journalist Veby Mega Indah, over two months after being blinded in one eye by what she believes was a projectile fired by Hong Kong riot police, is still seeking answers.
Indah was among a group of reporters on September 29 who were covering one of the hundreds of clashes between armed police and anti-government protesters that have broken out on a daily basis over the past six months.
“I am doing live-streaming that time. At one point, there are some protesters who showed up...the police are aiming at them shooting. I heard somebody, a fellow journalist behind me, yelling, 'Don't shoot! Don't shoot! We all journalists,'” Indah told Al Jazeera.
“A second later, I heard the bang and I saw some smoke from the stairs, then the projectile is coming into my right eye,” she added.
Her case shows the risks media workers are exposed to while covering the increasingly violent protests across the world.
A number of people have been subjected to tear gas, pepper spray, projectiles thrown by both sides and general mockery and verbal abuse.
The 39-year-old Indah works as a full-time employee for Suara Hong Kong News, an Indonesian media outlet that serves the thousands of Indonesians working in Hong Kong, as well as their friends and families back home and around the world.
She said she intends to keep working in Hong Kong, her home since 2012.
“I still want to be a journalist, I still want to continue my job. I still don't know how far I can do it. It's a question that keeps me up at night,” she told Al Jazeera.
According to Associated Press (AP) reporters on the scene when Indah was injured, police were retreating from a pedestrian bridge in the Wan Chai district.
Other journalists, including Indah, were standing separate from the protesters in bright yellow vests to identify themselves, as well as helmets with stickers and press cards around their necks.
Police say that they took action in response to protesters throwing objects from the bridge.
