HKTV doomed to fail from the start, ex-RTHK chief says

To a media veteran who led RTHK for 13 years, Ricky Wong Wai-kay's failure to get a free-television licence for his station came as no surprise.

The outcome was obvious to former broadcasting director Cheung Man-yee back in 2010, after Wong applied for a licence.

But it was ridiculous that the government cited a fear of "cutthroat competition" in throwing out his bid, she said yesterday.

"I told other people three years ago that Wong must not get a licence," Cheung said in a public talk at Chinese University. "It's nothing to do with insider knowledge. It's an educated guess from my years in the media and understanding of Hong Kong affairs."

Cheung declined to say whether Beijing played a role, but borrowed a quote from Liberal Party chairwoman Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee: "If I gave you a licence, I could not control you."

She added: "As a businessman, Wong cleverly said the decision was unrelated to Beijing but was only because of [Chief Executive] Leung Chun-ying."