Hong Kong’s public broadcaster on Tuesday banned staff from calling Taiwan’s leader “president” or referring to its “government” in new guidelines that mimic Beijing’s rhetoric.
In a memo sent to all staff, Radio Television Hong Kong’s (RTHK) management issued a series of new style rulings on how to refer to Taiwan.
The memo said that staff were now banned from using “inappropriate” terms such as “Taiwan’s president” or the “Taiwan government” in all radio, television and online output.
Photo: Reuters
“Inappropriate terminology such as ‘country,’ ‘Republic of China,’ ‘ROC’ ... must not be used when referring to Taiwan. Under no circumstances should Taiwan be referred to as a sovereign state or perceived as one,” the memo said.
The new ruling was made days after a prominent pro-Beijing politician in Hong Kong accused the broadcaster of breaking the law in how it describes Taiwan.
RTHK’s media office declined to comment on why the new rules had been rolled out.
Many international media firms have style guides that say Taiwan should not be described as a nation.
However, it is not common to forbid references to the Republic of China, its president or its government.
Separately, Hong Kong national security police yesterday arrested a former editor at the now-defunct Apple Daily, weeks after the newspaper was forced to close after authorities froze its assets.
Lam Man-chung (林文宗), who was the executive editor-in-chief of Apple Daily, was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security, the South China Morning Post reported, citing an unnamed source.
He is the eighth person from the Apple Daily who has been arrested in the past few weeks.
Police said that a 51-year-old former editor was arrested in relation to a similar case last month, but did not identify him.
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