The chairman of a government- appointed panel on public service broadcasting, Raymond Roy Wong, holds out hope that his group's review could help end the decades-long row over the role of RTHK.
Speaking shortly after he was appointed to head the review in January last year, the veteran journalist said the panel's work could help silence critics from across the political spectrum - so they would 'leave RTHK alone' to do its job.
Mr Wong and his team have stressed that the seven-member panel's primary task was to lay down a road map for Hong Kong's public service broadcasting - not to wind down the operations of the government-run broadcaster.
During the consultation period, panelists stayed out of the divisive, occasionally emotional, debate over RTHK's role and future.
But their report, published last week, and the related developments show that RTHK's fate is an issue that cannot be avoided. The report proposed the establishment of a new public broadcaster rather than transforming RTHK into a new broadcaster.
'In short, a sea change in RTHK's status is bound to be fraught with practical and insurmountable problems, and not conducive to the start-up of a new public broadcaster,' it said.
