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David Evans

It looks like the muck-rakers of yesteryear will be climbing off their lofty perches to relive old times.

Henry Parwani, 'a successful corporate PR consultant', is organising a reunion for staff who used to work at local and now defunct tabloid the Star.

According to Mr Parwani - a former managing editor - the Star was Hong Kong's first tabloid.

Launched in March 1965, many people 'first cut their teeth' there before moving on to bigger and better things, he said.

Well, almost everybody.

'[I'm] proof that some people didn't go on to bigger and better things,' said civil servant Mike Rowse, head of Invest Hong Kong, a new Government department responsible for attracting overseas investment.

He had the enviable task of sticking captions on pictures of scantily clad women between February 1973 and May 1974.

'No Sex for 16 years,' said Mr Rowse, which was far more information than we required for this column before we realised he was referring to one of the Star's racier headlines.

The paper was conceived by Graham Jenkins, a former Reuters correspondent who died in 1997, and who was described by ex-colleagues as a tough but fair task-master.

The Star was taken over by Sally Aw Sian at a later stage and closed in 1983.

Billy Lam Chung-lun, ex-chief executive of the Airport Authority, had a stint at the paper as an intern during the summers of 1967-1969.

'It was the time of the riots so it was full of excitement,' he said, referring to clashes involving pro-Maoist protesters and not life in the office.

Whistle a happy tune: What Hong Kong needs is a Web site where employees can slag off their bosses without the fear of retribution.

Before everybody jumps up and shouts 'chatroom', what we're talking about is a whistle-blowing Web site.

From there you would be able to launch an investigation into your colleague's expenses without fear of being dangled upside down by the ankles from the top of Central Plaza.

'The whistleblower's lot has not been a happy one,' said Raj Bairoliya, managing director of British-based company Forensic Accounting.

'Most people are too scared because there is nothing in it but a downside,' Mr Bairoliya told the Financial Times.

Leading anti-fraud campaigners have welcomed the launch of Forensic's Web site that allows employees to make confidential reports of financial malpractice taking place around them.

The initiative comes in the wake of Britain's 1998 Public Interest Disclosure Act, which is intended to protect workers who report malpractice, against victimisation.

The Act followed official inquiries concluding that employees had been too afraid to speak out about problems that led to disasters such as the collapse of Bank of Credit and Commerce International.

Last month, two people jumped off buildings in Hong Kong after being interviewed by ICAC officers over separate incidents of corruption.

Forensic Accounting said the Web site allowed employees a route to report fraud to top management on a confidential or anonymous basis.

Mr Bairoliya said Forensic Accounting would pass on details of allegations to companies.

After which employees would be held upside down by the ankles from the top of Central Plaza.

Graphic: whee17gbz



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