Hong Kong broadcaster’s swift flip from maverick voice to official mouthpiece

Not lengthy after Patrick Li took over because the government-appointed director of Hong Kong’s public broadcaster, a digital lock pad appeared exterior his workplace entrance.
In the previous, the director’s workplace had been the place workers members on the broadcaster, Radio Television Hong Kong, gathered to air grievances with administration selections: programming adjustments, labor disputes. Now, the lock pad signaled, such complaints had been not welcome.
For many staff, the closed room was an emblem of the broader transformation sweeping by way of RTHK, the 93-year-old establishment commemorated by residents as one of the trusted information sources in Hong Kong’s as soon as freewheeling media panorama.
RTHK was as soon as in comparison with the BBC for its fierce editorial independence. But beneath a sweeping nationwide safety legislation that Beijing imposed final 12 months to silence dissent, many say it now extra carefully resembles China Central Television, the propagandistic Chinese state broadcaster.
Since Li arrived in March, episodes that includes interviews with authorities critics have been dropped hours earlier than they had been to air. Historical dramas in regards to the Chinese Communist Party fill prime-time slots. Whole reveals have been eradicated — with hosts advised this might be their final taping solely after they recorded it.
Staff at Radio Television Hong Kong, which used to provide academic or socially aware applications that business broadcasters wouldn’t, in Hong Kong, June 17, 2020. (The New York Times)
New editorial pointers issued in September order workers members to “assist in the promotion” of the federal government’s work “on safeguarding national security.” They are additionally to “be cautious in contacts” with international governments and “political organizations.”
The directives come as President Xi Jinping of China tightens his iron grip, most notably at a high-level Communist Party assembly this week in Beijing that exalted his management and strengthened his potential to retain management for a few years.
Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief government, has praised Li for doing “exactly what I expect from a chief editor.” Soon afterward, Lam introduced that she had been given her personal RTHK speak present.
RTHK, which doggedly investigated official misconduct throughout anti-government protests in 2019, was lengthy anticipated to come back beneath strain. Under the safety legislation — imposed to quell the protests — officers have dismantled Hong Kong’s civil society and attacked media retailers deemed unfriendly.
Still, a dozen present and former workers members, a few of whom spoke on situation of anonymity, stated they had been astonished by the pace and boldness of the adjustments — not least due to the broadcaster’s historical past of keeping off incursions on its independence.
“In the past, there were a lot of checks and balances,” stated Tsang Chi-Ho, who co-hosted a long-running satire present and radio program earlier than his firing this summer time. Now, “in the event that they lower a program, what are you able to do? There’s no legislator to oppose it, no newspaper to say that’s unsuitable. No one can protest on the streets.
“Their goal is to tell everyone: Just forget the RTHK of the past.”
Journalism awards on show at Radio Television Hong Kong, which used to provide academic or socially aware applications that business broadcasters wouldn’t, in Hong Kong, June 17, 2020. (The New York Times)
RTHK declined to make Li out there for an interview. In an announcement, the broadcaster stated it will not touch upon inside issues however that adjustments had been made in RTHK’s programming as a result of it had turn out to be “a cause of public concern.”
“RTHK is a public service broadcaster but not a spokesman of the government,” the assertion stated. “RTHK aspires to be the most credible source of news and public information for the Hong Kong community.”
For proof of RTHK’s previous willingness to flout the federal government, viewers wanted look no additional than Tsang’s satirical tv present, “Headliner.” One recurring sketch featured the character of a domineering empress, who stood in for leaders starting from Xi to Lam. Although the present acquired complaints from authorities supporters, prime editors insulated the workers, Tsang stated.
Last 12 months, “Headliner” turned a harbinger of the brand new RTHK. Executives suspended the present after Hong Kong police complained about an episode mocking the pressure.
Just a few months later, police arrested the producer of an investigation into authorities’ delayed response to a 2019 mob assault on protesters. Then, in February, officers launched a report denouncing RTHK’s “seriously inadequate” editorial practices. They introduced that the highest editor, a veteran journalist, would get replaced by Li, a civil servant with no journalistic background.
Li instantly started requiring producers on new applications or probably “contentious” episodes to submit detailed proposals to a nine-person management committee.
The proposal type, in accordance with two individuals who reviewed the doc, asks whether or not complaints have ever been lodged in opposition to the producer; for an outline of doubtless controversial content material, together with background music; and for details about friends, together with whether or not they’re “known to be associated” with “radical political groups.”
Fanny Kwan, left, and Choy Yuk-ling, each RTHK producers on the time, arrive in courtroom after Choy was arrested in relation to an investigation of police conduct, in Hong Kong, April 22, 2021. (The New York Times)
Six reveals have stopped airing since Li took over, starting from a weekly roundtable for social scientists to a nightly journey and leisure program that made method for mainland dramas.
Another discontinued present was “The Pulse,” a present affairs program that went viral after a World Health Organization official was requested in an interview whether or not Taiwan ought to be a member. (China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, has shut it out of the physique.)
When taping the ultimate episode of “The Pulse” this summer time, the host, Steve Vines, signed off saying, “In these uncertain times, who knows what will happen in the future. But for now, goodbye and good luck.”
That was lower earlier than airing.
Others didn’t even have the possibility to attempt to say farewell. Leung Kai-chi, who co-hosted the social scientist roundtable, acquired a WhatsApp message at 8:36 p.m. the night time earlier than a scheduled taping.
“Management says that starting in July, RTHK Channel 31 will have an all-new campaign, and there will be new programming arrangements,” stated the message, which was despatched from a producer to the co-hosts and which Leung shared with The New York Times. “We were told to immediately stop production.”
The hosts instantly replied, “Take care.”
“We understand how much pressure they’re under,” Leung stated.
Shows nonetheless operating are unrecognizable to those that made them.
During Fanny Kwan’s 13 years producing the information program “Hong Kong Connection,” she steadily turned out episodes, interviewing exiled Chinese dissidents and fogeys of autistic kids. But when Li arrived, the brand new editorial committee vetoed a narrative, about pupil activists, she had been filming for weeks. Two different episodes by colleagues had been additionally scrapped.
Kwan and different producers then strategized over crafting proposals that may move muster, however two extra pitches had been rejected: one about commemorations of the Tiananmen Square bloodbath and the opposite a follow-up to the 2019 mob assault.
Kwan suspected the rejections had as a lot to do along with her crew as with the matters. Not lengthy after rebuffing her pupil activism episode, executives tapped exterior contractors to make their very own “Hong Kong Connection” episodes.
While Kwan and her colleagues waited, typically for weeks, to listen to again on their proposals, the brand new crew churned out episodes on matters like electrical autos and Chinese lion dances.
Since April, simply 5 episodes of “Hong Kong Connection” have been produced by the unique crew. No episodes touched on the political crackdown.
“It’s our story,” Kwan stated of the crackdown. “If Patrick Li didn’t come, I think we’d have been very, very busy.”
Another political present, “LegCo Review,” was outsourced after executives accused the producers of violating the approval course of. A discussion board with candidates in December’s legislative election was reassigned from the Public and Current Affairs division to Infotainment and Variety, in accordance with three folks with information of the matter.
Steering away from politics isn’t any assure of approval, both.
In August, Kong Yiu-Wing, an artist, acquired an interview request from an RTHK arts program about his exhibit “Hong Kongers Archive of 100 Objects,” a set of artifacts exploring Hong Kong id.
Kong was apprehensive. Pro-Beijing figures have attacked the thought of a discrete Hong Kong id as unpatriotic, and Kong was uncertain how the brand new RTHK would deal with the subject.

When he met with the producers, they requested technical questions on his course of. They didn’t movie extra politically tinged artifacts within the exhibit, like copies of pro-Beijing and pro-democracy newspapers, focusing as an alternative on classic recording gear.
The day earlier than the air date, an RTHK workers member referred to as Kong to inform him this system had been scrapped by higher-ups.
“I really never would have expected this,” Kong stated. “Basically every political topic that we could avoid, we already avoided.”
Li has defended his selections as “very normal” editorial processes. Meeting with legislators in May, he acknowledged blocking episodes however stated editorial independence didn’t imply independence for particular person manufacturing groups.
Even pro-Beijing lawmakers questioned his method. “People will worry that what you’re doing is a bit overdone,” one lawmaker, Chan Kin-por, stated.
Most workers members interviewed stated they’d been drawn to RTHK by its mission. As a public broadcaster, they stated, RTHK usually made academic or socially aware applications that business broadcasters wouldn’t. Although funding got here from the federal government, an ethos was instilled in all new hires: RTHK’s bosses had been the folks of Hong Kong.

Many journalists spent their complete careers at RTHK. “People used to talk about working for RTHK as a dream job,” Leung, the previous social science roundtable host, stated.
Now paranoia pervades the headquarters. The new workers pointers stipulate that every one editorial selections are confidential; breaches could warrant punishment. Communication with higher-ups have to be accomplished by way of a strict hierarchy; particular person producers don’t converse instantly with the editorial committee. Episodes a couple of 12 months outdated have been deleted from RTHK’s web site.
About one-third of the Public and Current Affairs division has departed. Three senior executives left inside two weeks of Li’s appointment. Li has a brand new deputy — a switch from the Marine Department.
Kwan, of “Hong Kong Connection,” has left, too. In July, she held a goodbye celebration with eight different colleagues who had agreed to stop collectively — partly to keep away from having too many farewell occasions.
For a number of months afterward, Kwan texted ex-colleagues nonetheless on the station to ask how they had been doing. Eventually, she stopped.
“Because I can sense that nothing changed there, really,” she stated. “Nothing better. Even worse.”