Asia Television has got no love lately. Ever since the channel broadcast an erroneous news report on the demise of retired state leader Jiang Zemin, it has earned public opprobrium, a HK$300,000 fine from the Broadcasting Authority and a repeat grilling by lawmakers in the Legislative Council.
ATV, the city's eternal also-ran TV station, deserves all the public shaming and criticism, but it is not clear it should be fined and investigated for running a wrong news story that it had believed was a genuine scoop.
Sure, it was the journalistic blunder of the year, if not the decade. But the pan-democrats have milked the incident for all it's worth, trying to turn it into a case of editorial interference by its pro-Beijing owners and managers where there was none.
In fact, nothing is more guaranteed to provoke Beijing's ire than reporting on the death of a state leader before an official announcement.
Though unsuccessful, pan-democratic lawmakers have used every opportunity to force ATV personnel to name the source, all the while fancying themselves champions of the free press.
Legco's information technology and broadcasting panel invited senior ATV management to attend a meeting this week. But that was a request that ATV was right to snub.