Hong Kong‘s Director of Broadcasting Leung Ka-wing was terminated early the same day to leave Radio Television Hong Kong
Hong Kong Director of Broadcasting, Editor-in-Chief of Radio Television Hong Kong Leung Ka Wing, Friday (19) suddenly announced the early termination of six months to leave the contract, by the Administrative Officer to take over. The same day the Hong Kong Government released the RTHK “review report”, force to count RTHK “multiple sins”. Radio Television Hong Kong is the only public broadcaster in Hong Kong, the past production of reports and programs have been monitoring the government, numerous awards at Home and abroad, has become the Hong Kong government and pro-Beijing legislators “thorn in the side”, since 2019, after the anti-sending campaign, and was pushed to the forefront. This Time, the Hong Kong government’s comprehensive regulation of RTHK, will make RTHK from the “voice of the people” of the public broadcasters, into the voice of the regime of the “official mouthpiece”?
The Hong Kong government suddenly announced on Friday (19), the Director of Broadcasting, Editor-in-Chief of Radio Television Hong Kong Leung Ka-wing left the post, replaced by Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs Lee Pak-chuen. The announcement said that the Government and Leung Ka-wing’s employment contract originally expired in August this year, stressing that it was “an early termination of contract by mutual consent”.
Voluntary departure or “being left”? Leung Ka Wing: no shame, no storm, no sunshine
The Director of Hong Kong Broadcasting Leung Ka-wing suddenly terminated his contract six months early and left his post, in the end, as the official said, “by mutual agreement early termination”, or is there another inside story? In his farewell email to RTHK colleagues, Leung did not talk much about it, but left this paragraph –
“The horse is at the door. We have been in the same boat together for five and a half years, and we have been in the same boat for five and a half years. I am not surprised by the favor and disgrace, I have no intention to stay or go. There is no storm and no sunshine.”
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), the only public broadcaster in Hong Kong, is under the jurisdiction of the Hong Kong government’s Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, and has been producing reports and programs that monitor the government and offer sharp criticism, winning numerous awards at home and abroad.
Since the 2019 anti-China campaign, RTHK has been pushed into the limelight by pro-Beijing legislators and the red media, questioning RTHK for “taking government money and opposing the government”. Last year, the Hong Kong government even set up a task force in RTHK on the grounds of complaints received, saying it would “review the governance and management of RTHK”.
The Hong Kong government and the pro-Beijing camp on the same day the mountain of criticism of RTHK
Shortly after the announcement of Leung Ka-wing’s departure, the Hong Kong government released a “review report” on RTHK, which counts RTHK’s “many sins”, including a “weak sense of accountability” and a lack of clear It also criticized RTHK for handling controversies and sensitive editorial arrangements mainly through verbal reports, without establishing quality assurance or risk management measures for violations, and lacking transparency in complaint handling mechanisms, and demanded that RTHK must make improvements in systems, implementation and monitoring.
After the release of the report, pro-Beijing legislators also echoed the report, describing the review report reflects that many RTHK programs are produced by front-line staff to put themselves in charge, criticizing Leung Ka-wing “name without substance”, during his term of office, complete dereliction of duty and failure to fulfill his duties as editor-in-chief of RTHK.
RTHK union: the only one who stepped down after the anti-revision campaign is actually the director of broadcasting
RTHK producers union chairman Zhao Shanen rebuttal, said the content of the report contradictory, weak arguments, challenging the bottom line of logic, described as “want to add to the crime, no excuse”, questioned the authorities are trying to “kill” RTHK, said RTHK today’s experience, is the current Hong Kong The description of what is happening to RTHK today is a reflection of the current situation in Hong Kong.
Chiu Sin-yan said: “RTHK is subordinate to the government, the service is the public, not bureaucrats, this time become a political problem of the scapegoat, is no way to solve the plight of Hong Kong. After an anti-amendment campaign storm, the only official who stepped down in disguise turned out to be the Director of Broadcasting, which is really quite ironic, and editorial independence is gone. Using high-handed administrative means to address truth-tellers, what is happening in RTHK today is really a reflection of Hong Kong.”
RTHK becomes the target of sniping from the pro-Beijing camp during the anti-sending campaign
In fact, RTHK has become a target of sniping by the pro-Beijing camp since the anti-sending campaign in 2019, the most representative example of which is the incident of Lee Kwan-ah, assistant program director of RTHK. At a press conference at the Hong Kong government the following day after the “721 Yuen Long white man violent attack” in 2019, Li Junya asked officials how they would respond to questions about “cooperation between the government, the police and the triads” in the civil society, and when the officials tried to make a perfunctory response, she said When the officials tried to make a perfunctory response, she followed up the question with the phrase “please speak in human language”, which was appreciated by the public, but attracted sniping from the pro-Beijing camp, questioning her for being “impolite” to the officials.
The report “7.21 Who Owns the Truth”, produced by RTHK TV’s “The Clanging Collection” with the participation of Writer-director Choi Yuk-ling, used a car license plate search to locate a number of key figures in the 7.21 Yuen Long attack to track down the truth of 7.21. The report caused widespread discussion among the public, but caused Choi Yuk-ling to get into trouble and was arrested by the Hong Kong Police Force for “allegedly making false statements”, and was even prosecuted.
At the time, Leung Ka Wing had expressed concern about the incident, said he would try to provide assistance to Choi Yuk Ling, and described the incident as rare, concerned about whether the arrest of colleagues will cause a chilling effect, did not endorse the official charges.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor personally pressured Leung Ka-wing early in the month of the belly and back
Leung Ka-wing refused to accept all the allegations made by the Hong Kong government and the pro-Beijing camp against his subordinates, in addition to attracting the discontent of the pro-Beijing forces, even Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor could not sit still, in the Legislative Council question-and-answer session early this month, Lam criticized RTHK as “in great need of improvement”, describing it as “to set things right “, and not to name the editor-in-chief of Radio Television Hong Kong Leung Ka-wing, said he expected the editor-in-chief “to have a position”. At that time, the outside world has predicted that the Hong Kong government may be a comprehensive rectification of RTHK, as the “party media surnamed Party” “official mouthpiece.
Shortly after Carrie Lam exerted pressure, the “BBC incident” occurred in RTHK. The incident was caused by China’s State Administration of Radio and Television last week issued a ban on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Radio Television Hong Kong then “follow the Central Government”, announced that no longer broadcast “BBC International Channel” and “BBC Current Affairs The week”, attracted criticism. Leung Leung Wing later admitted that the decision was made by him, stressing that there was no pressure from the top of the Hong Kong government, and that the reason was the decision of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television of the mainland, which applies to the whole country, while Hong Kong is within the mainland, Radio Television Hong Kong is a government department.
Administrative officials parachuted in as editor-in-chief outsiders to control the insiders
Another concern, is the new Director of Broadcasting candidate. The original Director of Broadcasting, Chief Editor of Radio Television Hong Kong Leung Ka-wing for senior media people, from 1975 to date, served in a number of Hong Kong media. The Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr. Li Baiquan, who was parachuted in to take over as editor-in-chief, is a government official with no previous experience in the media.
The Hong Kong government claims that the authorities have earlier on the Director of Broadcasting vacancy open recruitment, through headhunters received 41 applications, the selection committee has seen seven people, but no suitable candidates, so the outside world questions whether it reflects the Hong Kong government and even Beijing does not trust the media as the Director of Broadcasting, but to control the media workers by government officials, the implementation of “outsiders to control the insiders The government and even Beijing do not trust the media to be the director of broadcasting, but to control the media workers by government officials, and to implement the “outsiders to control the insiders.
Hong Kong Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau refuted that in the past, there are also the Director of the Division by people with media experience or political background, and asked whether the work of the Director of the Division with broadcasting experience will be smooth sailing.
Is it the case that those with broadcasting experience will have smooth sailing, or those without broadcasting experience will not be able to carry out the powers conferred by the RTHK Charter? I believe past experience has shown us that it is not, and we have expectations of RTHK, no matter who becomes Director is not a one-man job.”
Chairman of the RTHK Programme Staff Union, Chiu Sin-yan, then said that what RTHK needs, not bureaucrats, but innovation and professionalism to keep up with the times. And the new Director after taking office, RTHK’s Director and Deputy Director will be political officers, I believe it will be quite difficult, the union hold a wait-and-see attitude.
Democrats: political tasks override the professional
Former Legislative Councilor Lam Cheuk Ting criticized that the government sent all no news expertise and experience of the political officer Lee Pak Chuen as Director of Broadcasting, I believe he will carry out political tasks, overriding the professional leadership, sharp and comprehensive suppression of RTHK, I believe RTHK is about to enter the “most severe days”, worried that may not be as professional as in the past to report the news, so that The public will know the truth.
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