A reporter was briefly detained in Hong Kong on Saturday after shouting at Chinese leader Hu Jintao who was visiting a construction site.

Hu was on a three-day visit to the former British colony and was touring an exhibition corner at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal Pier construction site when a reporter from the Apple Daily newspaper called out to him.

[Rex Hon, Apple Daily Reporter]:
"[Hong Kong people] hope to vindicate June 4 [Tiananmen crackdown]. Do you hear? Do you hear?"

Hu waved as the reporter shouted, then walked away.

The reporter was referring to the Communist Party's bloody June 4th crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Local media scrambled to follow Hu, while a few officers surrounded the reporter Rex Hon.

[Rex Hon, Apple Daily Reporter]:
"Several policemen or security guards surrounded me. They wouldn't let me go. They took me from the press zone and trapped me in this corridor."

After Hu's departure from the site, reporters learned of Hon's brief detention by police. They chased Police Sergeant Andy Mak to get an explanation.

Scuffles then broke out between Mak and journalists as he tried to get past the crowd after 25 minutes of questioning.

Press freedom has been a topic of heated discussion in the former British colony. A survey released this month by the Hong Kong Journalists Association showed that nearly 87 percent of reporters believe that press freedom has deteriorated significantly in recent years.