Complaints to ombudsman soared as anti-government protests split Hong Kong last year

Ombudsman Winnie Chiu said many of them were on the same issue, with some using identical templates

Between April 2019 and March this year, government watchdog received 19,767 complaints, up from 4,991 in the previous 12 months

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Winnie Chiu took on the ombudsman role in April last year. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 7:00am, 5 Dec 2020Updated: 7:28am, 5 Dec 2020

Hong Kong’s ombudsman received three times more complaints involving maladministration last year when the city was split by social unrest, according to the government watchdog.

But Winnie Chiu Wai-yin, formerly the city’s first female deputy police commissioner before becoming the ombudsman in April last year, said many of them were on the same issue, with some using identical templates.

Between April 2019 and March this year, the watchdog received 19,767 complaints, up from 4,991 in the same period of 2018-19. The city was rocked by months of anti-government protests sparked by a since-withdrawn extradition bill in June last year.

Some 3,808 complaints concerned the authorities allowing a local television broadcaster to axe RTHK programmes, 2,566 were about one of the public broadcaster’s shows, and 1,011 about police handling of a mob attack in Yuen Long on July 21 last year.

The force refused to make public the entire Police General Orders. Photo: Dickson Lee

The watchdog did not elaborate on the complaints, including whether the broadcaster referred to was TVB, which stopped airing RTHK programmes in March after the Communications Authority relaxed the station’s licensing requirements.

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