The Hong Kong government’s review of Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) has found deficiencies in editorial management and a lack of transparency in handling complaints, signaling a major overhaul of the revered institution as concerns grow over media freedom.
The only independent, publicly funded media outlet on Chinese soil, RTHK was founded in 1928 and is sometimes compared with the BBC.
Its charter guarantees it editorial independence.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The broadcaster angered the Hong Kong government, the police and Beijing with its coverage of anti-government protests in 2019, including several investigations that sparked widespread criticism of the authorities.
“There are deficiencies in [the] editorial management mechanism,” the Hong Kong Commerce and Economic Development Bureau said in a 154-page report of its review released yesterday.
There were “no well-defined and properly documented editorial processes and decisions,” and no “clear allocation of roles and responsibilities among editorial staff,” it said. “Weak editorial accountability is observed.”
The government-led review focusing on aspects of RTHK’s governance and management was announced last year, spanning the issues of administration, financial control and personnel.
However, the union of the broadcaster’s staff said that the review “challenges the bottom line of logic.”
“Editorial autonomy has vanished into nothing,” it added.
Earlier yesterday, Hong Kong appointed Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Li (李百全) as director of broadcasting, from March 1.
Li, a career bureaucrat who worked in the government’s constitutional and mainland affairs and security bureaus, but has no experience in media, is to replace veteran journalist Leung Ka-wing (梁家榮), six months before his contract expires.
Leung, whose management the review described as too “passive,” was not thanked for his service in the appointment notice, contrary to practice.
Beijing has said that patriots must run every public institution in Hong Kong.
The broadcaster “serves residents of the territory instead of bureaucrats,” its staff union said.
Pro-Beijing supporters regularly file complaints against RTHK and stage protests outside its headquarters, accusing it of anti-government bias.
Last week, RTHK said it was suspending the relay of BBC radio news after China barred the BBC World News service from its networks, highlighting how the territory’s media are falling under Beijing’s tightening sway.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
RSS