Hong Kong broadcaster ViuTV apologises to former student leader over unscheduled event allegation

Billy Fung and exiled mainland Chinese activist Wang Dan were accused by television station of staging unscheduled event during which Hong Kong independence was discussed

Reading Time:2 minutes

ViuTV general manager Lo Ting-fai apologised to Billy Fung and Wang Dan. Photo: Bruce Yan

Published: 9:15pm, 21 Oct 2016Updated: 11:00pm, 21 Oct 2016

Broadcaster ViuTV has formally apologised to an exiled mainland Chinese dissident and a former University of Hong Kong student leader a day after admitting it had wrongly accused the two pro-democracy activists of staging an unscheduled event during the filming of a travelogue.

The development came after the broadcaster confirmed on Thursday that it had arranged the itinerary for an event where University of Hong Kong former student union head Billy Fung Jing-en and exiled mainland activist Wang Dan discussed the sensitive issues of Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang breaking away from China.

During a radio interview on Friday, Fung revealed ViuTV’s vice-president of production Kenneth Kam Kwong-sing had called him the previous night to apologise.

“But I [told him] there’s no way that you could condemn me publicly and then apologise simply with a phone call,” he said.

Fung added that his attendance at the event – a lunch seminar hosted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan to discuss Hong Kong-mainland relations – was confirmed by the production team one week before his departure.

“There weren’t that many restrictions during the shoot. We could talk about almost anything,” he said.