【人物特寫】12歲小記者抗強權挖真相
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住在 Pennsylvania 的 12歲女孩 Hilde Kate Lysiak 年紀輕輕,但在家鄉已有 4年採訪經驗,是美國全國職業記者協會最年輕的成員。上個月,她為了採訪美墨邊境非法移民的新聞而遭當地警長阻撓,甚至被威脅要拘捕和送她入監獄 ,但 Hilde 毫不畏懼,高舉新聞自由據理力爭,獲得媒體和大眾的關注,上星期她終於獲得小鎮道歉,贏了漂亮的一仗。

Hilde 8歲就辦自己的報紙 Orange Street News,分發到住家附近的咖啡店。2016年她 9歲念小學三年級時,搶在主流傳媒之前而獨家報道社區裡一宗謀殺案,並在網上發表短獲得關注。之後 Hilde 定期出席市議會、在沒有警員輔助下採訪、報道 KKK 受害人、高中毒品問題、跨性別學生、國會議員候選人等硬新聞。時至今日,Orange Street News已經發展為紙張版和網絡版,每月出版,訂閱費是一年$19.99。

Hilde 在爸爸的協助下寫了 6本書,記錄她的採訪經驗,最近她為新書的簽名會和演說來到 Arizona 州,短暫逗留鄰近美墨邊境的 Patagonia 市。2月18日下午,她騎著單車在當地採訪,被當地警長 Joseph Patterson 截查,她表明自己的記者身分,但警長說:「我不想聽到關於新聞自由的話」,並說要將 Hilde 拘捕送進少年監獄。

Hilde 錄下了兩人的對話:「你之前攔下我,說要把我關進少年監獄。我到底做了什麼違法的事?」警長威脅說:「你在拍我?好,你可以拍我,但我告訴你,如果你把我的樣貌發布到網絡上,就違反亞利桑那州的法律。」他又說「當地發現山獅」,要她為安全計盡快離開。

Hilde 在她的網站 Orange Street News 報道經歷,引起美聯社、英國《衛報》等傳媒報道。Patagonia 市議會最後向 Hilde 道歉,表示阻撓採訪違反了美國憲法第一修正案列明的言論自由權利。Hilde 說﹕「這不僅僅關乎我……我擔心第一修正案的記者及市民的權利,尤其是那些沒有擴音器的人。」

Hilde 對新聞的熱誠源自她曾經擔任記者的父親,他把很多跑新聞的經歷告訴女兒,教會她不少報導的技巧。而 Hilde 最喜歡的雋語,是美籍俄裔作家 Ayn Rand 的話:「問題不在於誰批准我,而是誰阻撓我」。

Hilde 的 Orange Street News網站 : https://orangestreetnews.com/

Hilde Kate Lysiak (age 12) is an American journalist who, while still a pre-teen, publishes a local newspaper in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, the Orange Street News. She is the youngest member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Hilde has a book deal with Scholastic and a TV mystery series based on her life is to be produced by Apple, with Brooklynn Prince playing Lysiak.

Her father, Matthew Lysiak, worked as a journalist for the New York Daily News until moving back to his hometown of Selinsgrove; he used to take Hilde to the newsroom while researching stories, and in his words “hooked her on the rush of chasing news". Her father told Today Show host Sheinelle Jones “[S]he loves it … I don’t really want to get in the way of her passion." In an interview for Brit+Co, Lysiak stated that her “favorite beat is crime. My second favorite beat is crime. And my third favorite beat is crime! Covering crime is like solving a giant moving puzzle. The job of a crime reporter might be the best job in the world." She told the Columbia Journalism Review in 2015 that rather than working for a newspaper, she ultimately wants to own her own.

In 2016 Lysiak and her sister Isabel received a Tribeca Disruptive Innovations Award. Lysiak also had the honor of interviewing Nobel Peace Prize recipient Malala Yousafzai, during a visit to Providence, Rhode Island, and reacted by donating all the advertising revenue from the Orange Street News for a month to the Malala Fund promoting female education.