Since the political officer with no media experience Li Baiquan parachuted into Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) as Director of Broadcasting, RTHK is in constant turmoil. Following the earlier several royal programs were cut, and then to the social platform old video “knife”, Monday (3) “clang set”, “The Pulse (pulse)”, “headlines” and “proceedings” and other more than 30 Youtube video was deleted; another Hong Kong media cited news that RTHK assistant program director The news quoted by the Hong Kong media said that RTHK’s assistant program director, Li Junya, did not get her contract renewed. The journalism scholar of the University of Hong Kong, Fu Jinghua, said in an interview with this station, reflecting the government’s determination to “fully govern” RTHK, agreeing with the former editorial director of “Clang Collection”, Tsai Yu-ling, said that Hong Kong is experiencing a “historical purge”.
Our reporter found out that RTHK started to attack the YouTube channel “RTHK Radio Hong Kong” at 5pm on May 3. The “Clang Collection” has become the key target of the purge, and all its videos from April 2020 to September 2019 have been taken down, many of which are related to police brutality and anti-amendment campaigns, including the “Abusive Violence” uploaded on September 9, 2020, about the “8.31 Prince Edward Station Incident”. The police have also taken down “The Complaint”, “The Police and the Public are Evil” and “The Tearful Haze”, which are about police brutality.
In addition, early last year, the Commissioner of Police repeatedly complained about the suspension of the royal program “headlines”, had been drawn up program “proceedings”, “five nights to speak” series, “point of view 31”, “The Pulse (pulse)”, etc. were not spared. Among them, “The Pulse” in March last year, RTHK journalist Susanna Tong asked the WHO about Taiwan membership and was sniped by pro-China organizations and newspapers, and the programs were deleted first, and Susanna Tong resigned earlier.
Yvonne Choi: The purge of history begins at RTHK
The video can be viewed on RTHK’s Facebook page and Podcast page. Some netizens have downloaded the program for backup after learning about it. The editorial director of “721: Who Owns the Truth”, Choi Yuk-ling, quoted Xu Ben’s “History of Tyranny” on Facebook, saying, “The button of deletion has been activated, and the cleansing of history has started in RTHK, or slowly extended to other levels.
RTHK earlier confirmed that it will delete the clips that have been on YouTube and Facebook platforms for more than a year, saying that the new arrangement is only in line with the consistent practice of RTHK’s official website, which currently only provides the past 12 months of programs to revisit. There are also a number of programs were braked, including the resounding set of “reporter’s way out” earlier suddenly by RTHK management to draw up.
Fu Jinghua: The Hong Kong government is keen to “comprehensive governance” of RTHK
The University of Hong Kong News and Media Research Center Associate Professor Fu Jinghua said to this station, the government has set the tone earlier to reform RTHK in a big way, RTHK’s series of program content and personnel changes, reflecting the government’s determination to “comprehensive governance” of RTHK, clear away the regime’s thorn in the side, monitoring the government’s programs, such as “Clang set”, “Viewpoint 31” and so on, and then the introduction of government The Government has also introduced programmes produced by the Information Services Department to advocate good policies, such as the “Election Committee Subsector View” hosted by the Chief Executive, which has turned into a government propaganda machine. He questioned whether RTHK could still fulfill the objectives of the Charter, such as “editorial independence”.
Fu Jinghua said: the new senior management came to power, is basically doing management, not content. Frontline journalists left, there are programs off the air or were drawn up. At the same time and more official government content, basically propaganda, I believe the whole arrangement, to make RTHK become fully controlled by the government organization, quite by the public attention, the government has a certain check and balance of the program, such as “clang set”, “point of view 31”, “proceedings” are affected. I doubt whether RTHK can still fulfill the objectives of the Public Broadcasting Charter.
Mr. Fu agrees that RTHK is undergoing a “historical cleansing” and sighs that it is part of the “authoritarian governance” that Hong Kong is undergoing, a process that also includes government officials’ initiatives to legislate on “fake news” and tighten the register. The process also includes the initiative of government officials on the “fake news” legislation, tightening the search book, etc., the media living space, freedom of the press and freedom of expression has been significantly narrowed.
The rumor is that Li Junya was not renewed at the end of the contract to leave
A number of Hong Kong media cited news on the same day that RTHK is being investigated for complaints of Assistant Program Director Lee Kwan-ah, has been notified that the contract will not be renewed and must leave at the end of this month.
RTHK replied to our inquiry, said it would not comment on individual cases, for the social media platform to delete the film, said “no additional”.
Li Junya joined RTHK in October 2017 and was scheduled to complete a three-year probationary period in October 2020, but was suddenly asked to extend the probationary period by 120 days at the end of September. She asked Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor at a government press conference the day after the 7.21 incident in Yuen Long in 2019, “whether the 7.21 incident was a joint performance by the government, the police and the black,” and asked Lam Cheng to “speak human” during the follow-up question. After the incident, Li Junya was “blue silk” complaints, RTHK management originally completed the investigation and did not think it was necessary to make disciplinary follow-up, but the Hong Kong Government in last year, the Government arranged for Administrative Officer Fung Kin-yip to serve as Deputy Director of Broadcasting, RTHK decided to restart the investigation. The incident has aroused concern, worrying about further crackdown on press freedom.
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