RTHK staff must let their new chief Leung Ka-wing get on with his job
Yonden Lhatoo says staff at the public broadcaster should not let outsized fears over editorial independence stop them working with the new director to improve it
Let's get this straight: RTHK is no sacred cow. Hong Kong's public broadcaster is not a fully independent entity and a law unto itself, although it certainly functions like one. It's essentially a government department, so the administration has the right to oversee and appoint its managers.
It's also entirely funded by us, the taxpayers, so the public has a right to know how its money is being spent on running this ageing behemoth of a media organisation. Big changes and challenges are coming for RTHK against the backdrop of a media industry in which it's survival of the fittest now.
Look at the blunders by far bigger and better companies than ATV throughout the history of journalism worldwide. Let him without sin cast the first stone
Our public broadcaster's employees are well paid and pretty much guaranteed annual salary increases along with other civil servants. Contract workers are hired on generous terms and regularly absorbed into the civil service with all the job security and perks of joining the government work force. They're strongly unionised, as well, which empowers them to resist change.
But they might want to look at how harsh life has become in the private sector to appreciate their good fortune. In case the good people at RTHK don't know yet, outside their Kowloon Tong headquarters, newspapers and television stations are cutting costs, lowering pay grades, and laying off staff. It's a real struggle for survival out there.
So enough with all the commotion about editorial independence and political interference every time a new director of broadcasting is appointed.
I feel sorry for former director Roy Tang Yun-kwong, who had to walk on a black carpet through the gauntlet of hostile employees when he turned up for the first day of his job in September 2011. He was editor-in-chief of a media organisation who could not make any editorial decision without triggering a hue and cry about interference. He was never given a chance because he had no journalistic experience and was essentially a career bureaucrat on a government posting.
Well, now they've got someone with plenty of media experience. The new director, Leung Ka-wing, is a well-respected veteran of the industry with a career spanning 40 years in television, internet broadcasting, publishing and teaching.