TVB boss backs news chief's handling of police 'beating'

TVB supports its news chief's "professionalism and judgment" in handling a report on a group of policemen allegedly beating an Occupy protester on Wednesday, the broadcaster's boss says.

Mark Lee Po-on, the station's executive director and group general manager, was responding to a letter from pan-democratic lawmakers Claudia Mo Man-ching and Gary Fan Kwok-wai, criticising TVB news chief Yuen Chi-wai for allegedly ordering part of the report removed.

The report includes graphic footage taken by a TVB film crew during an overnight police operation to clear a road near government headquarters in Admiralty. It appears to show seven officers taking turns kicking and punching Civic Party member Ken Tsang Kin-chiu as he lies on the ground in a darkened recess.

The original report on the alleged attack, aired on TVB on Wednesday morning, said officers had "carried [the protester] to a dark corner, put him on the ground, punched and kicked him". But that part of the voiceover was removed for a few hours and then replaced with another one at noon saying that officers were "suspected to have used excessive force".

In a separate, open letter on Wednesday, 27 journalists from TVB's news department said they disagreed with station management's judgment on the report.

Lee wrote, in reply to Mo and Fan, that "extra care is needed when reporting an incident that could involve criminal liability".