I refer to the letter from Patrick Leung headlined, 'Views smack of censorship' (South China Morning Post, September 10).
It would appear that Mr Leung completely misunderstood my criticism (Post, September 8) of ATV's airing of the Chinese propaganda film about the Dalai Lama and my reasons for calling on the station to explain why it chose to do so.
In his letter, Mr Leung did not question my assertion that the film was not a documentary, but only urged that we must be 'prepared to tolerate films . . . we find disagreeable'. To Mr Leung, to do otherwise is akin to censorship. This is a seriously flawed argument, and one which to me smacks of acquiescence. Had ATV chosen to air a film that told this complex and controversial story exclusively from the other side the broadcaster would have been equally negligent.
This point was taken up by the Post 's columnist Andy Ho, on September 9.
He suggested that ATV could have handled the situation better by organising a panel discussion on the film and its content.
As Mr Ho points out, however, the local electronic media does have a rather poor record in dealing with issues that are sensitive to the Chinese Government and there is little chance of this situation improving.
