Major journalism awards reject Hong Kong public broadcaster’s bid to pull entries
- RTHK sought to withdraw submissions from Society of Publishers in Asia Awards and Human Rights Press Awards, citing an ongoing review of operations
- Organisers have denied the requests, saying it is too late to back out now that adjudication is under way
Organisers have rejected RTHK’s requests to withdraw all its entries from two major journalism awards, after the Hong Kong public broadcaster cited an ongoing review of operations as the rationale.
The Post understands some of the submitted productions were deemed “sensitive” by the broadcaster, which recently appointed a new director.
Among the programmes put forward was a documentary worked on by freelance journalist Bao Choy, who is being prosecuted for using a government database to access car ownership information while co-producing an episode for the station.
The government-funded broadcaster’s attempts to pull out of the annual ceremonies – the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Awards and the Human Rights Press Awards – followed Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor this week issuing her backing for its new director of broadcasting.
She said Patrick Li Pak-chuen, who also serves as editor-in-chief and has faced accusations of editorial interference, had been meeting her expectations since he took the helm on March 1.
Both award shows confirmed on Wednesday that Li, or his representatives, had requested the withdrawal of all its submissions. However, they said their rules did not allow for entries to be pulled at this stage, as the adjudication process had already begun.
An RTHK spokeswoman said a report had identified room for improvement in a wide range of areas including corporate governance, leading the organisation to review its operations, such as the framework for nominating programmes for awards locally, in mainland China and internationally.