Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK pulls radio show featuring opposition politician for ‘review of contentious content’
- Government-funded station also pulls plug on planned replacement for councillor on Letter to Hong Kong – the chairman of city’s journalists association
- Public broadcaster has been accused of exercising increasing levels of self-censorship under its new editor-in-chief
Hong Kong’s beleaguered public broadcaster has put on hold radio programmes featuring an opposition district councillor and a senior representative of city journalists, amid allegations the station is exercising increasing levels of self-censorship under its new boss.
RTHK’s Letter to Hong Kong was expected to broadcast a pre-recorded contribution from councillor Michael Mo Kwan-tai on Sunday, but top management decided to remove his speech from this weekend’s slot, telling staff time was needed to review its “contentious” content, according to two sources.
The government-funded broadcaster then pulled the plug on the production team’s choice to replace Mo – Chris Yeung Kin-hing, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association – before he was able to record his segment.
Letter to Hong Kong is a radio programme airing every Sunday on RTHK’s English channel, and providing a 10-minute window for politicians, officials and people from all walks of life to voice their opinions on their topic of choice.
The sources said they believed management’s reference to putting the programmes on hold was a euphemism for dropping them altogether from the schedules.
This Sunday’s Letter to Hong Kong will now feature Eugene Chan, a former chairman of RTHK’s board of advisers who is a dentist and no longer has a role in the media industry.
Chan earlier told the public broadcaster to help nurture the public’s sense of national identity, saying that was its “unshirkable responsibility”.