Ex-ATV man tipped as director of broadcasting
A veteran journalist who resigned from ATV in 1994 over its refusal to broadcast a documentary about the Tiananmen Square crackdown is expected to be appointed director of broadcasting.
A person familiar with the hiring said the interviews with shortlisted candidates had been completed and the announcement of Timothy Jim Sui-hing as the new RTHK chief was likely to be made next month.
Jim, 59, managing director of Sing Tao Overseas Operations, is among 20 candidates for the post vacated by Franklin Wong Wah-kay.
Wong announced in November he would not renew his contract when it expired in February, citing health problems.
The open recruitment exercise closed on January 18.
Wong was selected in a similar exercise three years ago when then director Chu Pui-hing sought early retirement after an embarrassing incident involving a karaoke hostess.
Jim, who graduated from Baptist University's department of communication, worked as a reporter at the South China Morning Post in the 1980s.
Assistant director of broadcasting Tai Keen-man, who applied for the job and is understood to be one of the shortlisted candidates, said he had yet to receive any news, 'but I'm not optimistic that I will eventually get the job. I will continue to serve RTHK in whatever post I occupy'.
In May 1994, Jim resigned as ATV's assistant chief executive in the wake of the refusal of the station's senior management to broadcast a Spanish documentary about the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Jim had bought the documentary for broadcast in a slot reserved for news at the free-to-air station.
The incident sparked the resignation of six other ATV journalists and aroused concern about management's interference infringing on editorial independence.
Jim had been credited with raising the profile of the station, particularly with documentaries on the Chinese channel and the talk show News Tease, which featured co-hosts Albert Cheng King-hon and Wong Yuk-man.
The government is looking for someone with at least 15 years' media experience to lead RTHK on a three-year contract with a monthly salary of HK$165,350.
Doubt over RTHK's future was removed when the government decided in September 2009 to ignore recommendations that it set up an independent public service broadcaster from scratch. RTHK would, instead, be strengthened and continue as a government department.
The administration proposed pumping fresh resources into RTHK, moving it to a new site at Tseung Kwan O costing HK$1.6 billion and developing digital broadcasting, including high-definition TV programmes. An 11-member advisory board - appointed by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen in August - was set up under a new RTHK charter that defines the roles and missions of the broadcaster.
The charter requires the director of broadcasting to explain to the board when he chooses not to take its advice on editorial principles, programme standards and service improvements - a clause that critics say amounts to interference.
