HK drops 24-hour BBC radio channel
HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) dropped a 24-hour BBC World Service channel from its airwaves yesterday, replacing it with state radio from China in what critics say is a sign of encroaching Chinese control in the former British colony.
Tensions between Hong Kong and Beijing’s ruling Communist Party leaders have grown in recent years, particularly over the “Occupy” civil disobedience movement in 2014 when tens of thousands of protesters blocked roads for 79 days demanding full democracy.
Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997 with the promise of wide-ranging autonomy under a “one country, two systems” formula.
An online petition, titled “RTHK: Give us back our BBC World Service”, had been signed by nearly 1,000 people in a bid to keep the British broadcaster’s round-the-clock programming, saying the switch would make Hong Kong “feel more parochial and inwardlooking”.
However, the city’s main public broadcaster went ahead with scrapping the exclusive BBC channel at midnight on Sunday.
Instead, China National Radio – a state-run outlet carrying no sensitive or critical reporting on China – would be broadcast on its own RTHK channel.
The broadcasts are mostly in Mandarin, rather than the city’s main Cantonese dialect.
Amen Ng, a spokesman for RTHK, said earlier there were no political considerations in the decision and said the Chinese broadcaster would enhance cultural exchanges.
She said there would still be BBC World Service broadcasts, although only overnight from 11pm to 7am and occasionally on weekends.
Other RTHK staff said the move had been forced through without broader consultation.
“Nobody knew anything about it. We were told in a meeting just before it was announced,” said a senior RTHK editorial employee who declined to be identified.
“People see it as a negative thing. The BBC is generally regarded as independent, and (Chinese) state media is not,” he said. – Reuters