Democrats accuse MTR and Star Ferry of censorship
The Democratic Party yesterday accused the Star Ferry Company and the MTR Corporation of political censorship for rejecting its election advertisements.
The party said it had booked a video advert to run for two weeks from yesterday but the MTR had rejected it at the last minute on Tuesday. The Star Ferry Company had declined the party's request to advertise at one of its Hong Kong Island terminals, it said.
The party claimed the MTR Corp - in which the government is the controlling shareholder - had told it the video had been rejected because it 'contains unconfirmed information' - a reference to an image in the film of a black box covering the Legislative Council building that may suggest the Legco is a 'black-box operation', meaning its operations are secretive and lack accountability.
Phrases written on the black box include reference to government-business collusion, exchanges of favours and fake consultation.
However, a spokesman for the MTR Corp said it had 'just expressed the concerns of its advertising agent'.
The spokesman said the agent managed all election adverts. The MTR Corp was not aware of the nature of the agent's concerns, he said.
Democratic Party chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan said the MTR was not dealing fairly with election advertisements.
'I see selective political censorship in this case. It is targeting the Democratic Party and this will lead to unfairness in the election. This may also threaten the city's freedom of speech,' he said.
The party plans to stage a protest today outside the MTR Corp's head office in Kowloon Bay.
A lawmaker of the Beijing-friendly camp backed the MTR Corp, saying that the company had the authority to make its own decisions about election adverts intended for display within its domain.
Even though newspapers have often carried claims about Legco being a 'black box', Tam Yiu-chung, chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said the phrase might be too sensitive for the MTR Corp. 'The MTR is authorised to [reject adverts] because they are placed within its domain. It is difficult to challenge it,' Mr Tam said.
This month, Roadshow, which supplies programmes for televisions on buses and minibuses, rejected an advert placed by Wu Chi-wai, the party's candidate in the Kowloon East geographical constituency.
Kam Nai-wai, who is one of the party's Hong Kong Island candidates, said the Star Ferry Company had refused to allow the party to put up adverts on the staircase of its Central pier.
He said the rejection might be because of a line in the advert mentioning the June 4, 1989, crackdown in Tiananmen Square.
Johnny Leung Tak-hing, general manager of the Star Ferry Company, dismissed Mr Kam's claim.
'For years we have not allowed the posting of political adverts. It is not selective censorship, nor are certain parties being targeted,' he said.
Meanwhile, Andrew Cheng Kar-foo, one of the party's candidates in the New Territories East constituency, and the Civic Party's Mandy Tam Heung-man, who is contesting the accountancy functional constituency, said their placards and posters had been withheld by mainland customs agents until early this week.
