THE UNIVERSITY OF Hong Kong (HKU) acted swiftly to salvage the public relations disaster following the messy press conference given by Vice-Chancellor Cheng Yiu-chung on the Robert Chung Ting-yiu saga last week. The poor performance and the handling of the media by its external affairs head, Rupert Chan Yun-kwan, were sharply criticised by the press. So much so that the university hastily appointed veteran media professional Christopher Chiu to co-ordinate press inquiries and information services relating to the independent inquiry named by the university council on Tuesday. Mr Chiu, a HKU alumni who worked in journalism before he joined the university as assistant director of development and alumni affairs, took over the job the same day. He stood quietly behind council chairman Yang Ti Liang at the press session. Mr Yang, mobbed by press at the session, was accidently hit on the head by a camera. As hacks pursued him he quipped: 'There are more of you here than at an Andy Lau concert.' How would he know? Can he be a closet pop fan? More on the background of Andrew Lo Cheung-on, now the central figure in the controversy. A source close to CLP Power revealed the not-so-secret connection between him and the company. Mr Lo worked for CLP in the 1980s as public relations man, with special duties on the Daya Bay project. He left in 1986 and re-joined the Orient Overseas (International) shipping company until 1997, when he moved into the Chief Executive's Office. The source said he was not surprised that Mr Lo's history was little known, even though his job then was to deal with the media, adding: 'He was as low-key then as now. He worked more behind the scenes'. Academic freedom was well in evidence on the HKU campus on Tuesday before the university council announced the commission members. Outside the library, students staged a play, lampooning the characters embroiled in the polls controversy. Tung Chee-hwa was portrayed as stupid or ignorant 'Emperor Tung', while Andrew Lo was cast as 'Lo the Eunuch'. In a play on the sound of their real names, Professor Cheng Yiu-chung became 'Cheng the Evil Spirit' and Robert Chung Ting-yiu was called 'Chung who has to stop'. Legal arguments have seldom been more strained than by Senior Counsel Joseph Fok in the right of abode case. Not content with saying Hong Kong could step off a cliff without falling into a chasm, he tried to destroy two-year-old Chong Fung-yuen's case by saying if it was correct, it would mean that if a mainland Olympic official, flying to Sydney, went into labour in the air and the plane was diverted here, the child would have Hong Kong citizenship. Judge Anthony Rogers asked dryly: 'Mr Fok, are you suggesting the SAR is in danger of being inundated with the offspring of Olympic officials?' The news agency Agence France Presse gave Financial Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen an unofficial change of job in an item about his impending trip to Australia. It called him Foreign Secretary. Of course, he does make lots of trips abroad . . . Ombudsman Alice Tai Yuen-ying is getting a touch sensitive to criticism. She was quick to respond when Ho Hei-wah, director of the Society for Community Organisation, recently suggested the office had gone 'a little soft' since she took over last year. But it was not this that drew her wrath. In a letter to Mr Ho, she instead disputed his claim that he makes 'dozens' of complaints to the Ombudsman every year. Apparently the true figure was seven last year. And that, at least in Ms Tai's eyes, seems to make all the difference. corridors@scmp.com
