New working group to monitor governance, editorial principles at Hong Kong’s RTHK after watchdog rules satire ‘denigrated’ police
- Station’s government-appointed Board of Advisers forms oversight body in wake of numerous recent criticisms surrounding content
- Broadcast director Leung Ka-wing, an ex officio member of the board, was not invited to the meeting
Official advisers to Hong Kong’s public broadcaster will form a working group to monitor RTHK’s governance and editorial principles, following recent controversies that have forced it to apologise for and suspend a satirical show deemed offensive to the city’s police force.
The decision came at a Thursday meeting between non-official members of the government-appointed RTHK Board of Advisers and Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah, whose bureau oversees the broadcaster.
The group will be tasked with ensuring the station’s programmes are in line with its governing charter, which requires content to be accurate, impartial and engender a sense of citizenship and national identity.
Speaking to reporters later in the day, Yau rejected the notion the new oversight body would interfere with the broadcaster’s editorial independence, saying advisers were “duty-bound to help RTHK”.
The move followed the Communications Authority’s Tuesday ruling that a February 14 episode of the political satire show Headliner had “denigrated and insulted” the police force.