Journalists, photographers and filmmakers joined at the Frontline Club for a special screening of Kate Adie’s latest documentary.
Shot entirely on tapeless cameras, the film retraces Kate’s footsteps of reporting from the protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Returning to China with what she describes as “an open mind” she found herself “at the mercy of relentless surveillance by the secret police”.
Kate found fame back in 1989 when she was one of the few journalists reporting from the middle of the action, amongst gunfire and dead bodies.
She told the audience that she made a pact with her cameraman to stay for the sake of the story, despite the odds of them surviving being stacked up against them.
This time round Kate and her crew were denied journalist visas, forcing them to effectively go undercover, under the false pretence of being tourists.
Despite being followed by numerous secret police cars throughout the filming process, she said people were “desperate to tell their story of the events of 1989”.
At the Q&A session people were quick to ask Kate her thoughts on the state of journalism.
One journalist asked: “Do you think the quality of journalism has declined over the past twenty years, with regard to the reporting on Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka”.
Kate replied:
“Journalists have a duty to report and inform the world, the fact that people come to meetings like these here and care about global issues, tells me journalism is alive and well”
I spoke to Kate after the screening, and asked for her reaction to the news that China has blocked a number of internet services this week.
