ATV appoints new director as chief is ordered to go
Controversial Louie King-bun may be on his way to succeed station head James Shing, who is under government orders to step down
A controversial figure at beleaguered ATV has been appointed a director of the broadcaster in a move seen as paving the way for him to succeed James Shing Pan-yu as manager of the station.
Louie King-bun's appointment came as commerce minister Greg So Kam-leung yesterday reiterated that Shing had to quit his executive director post before Monday.
Shing's resignation was ordered by the Communications Authority last week when it found that he had breached licensing terms by allowing investor Wong Ching - who is neither a director nor a shareholder - to interfere with ATV's day-to-day operations.
Louie, a former executive editor of the leftist newspaper Ta Kung Pao, joined the broadcasting station as vice-president last year.
He found himself in controversy in September after an episode of ATV Focus - of which he is in charge - ran critical comments against student group Scholarism at the peak of the national education debate.
The group opposed the government's plans to introduce national education classes in schools.
The Communications Authority received more than 10,000 complaints against the programme.
In June, Louie was promoted to the post of senior vice-president, succeeding the retiring Kwong Hoi-ying.
He could not be reached for comment yesterday.
ATV senior vice-president Ip Ka-po declined to say if Louie would succeed Shing and when Shing would step down.
Former actress Bonnie Ngai Chau-wah, who heads ATV's Asia Club, said: "The impact on ATV's operations could be minimised if Mr Louie could succeed Mr Shing. Mr Louie is also an experienced executive."
Meanwhile, in a brief statement yesterday, ATV said Wong Ching had pumped a further HK$27 million into the television station in the form of a loan. He had committed close to HK$1.36 billion so far, the statement said.
"It shows Mr Wong's commitment to the TV station. It will be business as usual here," Ip said.
A Communications Authority spokesman confirmed it had been notified of Louie's appointment. But the authority had not received any notification about Shing stepping down from his executive director post, the spokesman said.
Last week, the authority released findings of its year-long investigation into ATV that concluded that Wong had unduly exercised de facto control of the station.
The report said Shing had improperly allowed Wong to interfere and that Shing had provided misleading information to the authority in its investigation.
ATV was fined HK$1 million for breaching licensing conditions and Shing was required to "cease acting as a person exercising control, including directorship, of ATV" before Monday.
Yesterday, Ip said the station was preparing to appeal the authority's ruling.
Commerce minister So said Shing would still have to step down by Monday despite the planned appeal.
The authority's investigation was prompted in July 2011 after public concerns over allegations that Wong had given instructions on a newscast falsely reporting the death of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin.
