#GoHKSubtitles

#RTHK's Hong Kong Connection: Episode on "Freedom and Fear" (2020-06-08)

"The day we all fear being arrested for assembling, will be the day we truly lose our freedom of assembly"

#HongKongConnection #FreeSpeech

#PressFreedom #RTHK
Arrested News Docu Producer Reminds Journalists: Carry on what we ought to do

On Nov 3, 2020, the Hong Kong police arrested Bao Choy, a RTHK producer who took part in investigative reports about police brutality and misconduct.

The police accused Choy of making a false declaration while conducting licence plate searches of vehicles allegedly connected to the white-clad gangsters involved in the mob attack in Yuen Long on July 21, 219.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association (#HKJA) comdemned the authorities for "exhausting every possible way to suppress" media workers who try to uncover the truth.

RTHK's director of broadcast Leung Ka-shu, who has been attacked by Beijing loyalists, expressed concern over the grave impact on RTHK staff and its consequence.

The chairman of HKJA, Chris Yeung, also pointed out that “the immediate question is whether reporters will still be comfortable to do regular vehicle licence checks, as they have been for years, because there is now a risk they may face charges”.

On the evening of Nov 3, 2020, Choy on bail met with the press outside Taipo Police Station. She thanked fellow media workers for their concern and hopes journalists in Hong Kong could stay unswayed and uphold professionalism. "Carry on what we ought to do," said Choy.

Source: Apple Daily; InMedia; RTHK #Nov3
https://bit.ly/2JzbGdB

#Arrest #WhiteTerror #BaoChoy #Journalism #HongKongConnection

=====
Police Arrests Journalist of News Programme Addressing Police-Triad Alleged Collusion during Yuen Long 7.21 Triad Attack

https://publielectoral.lat/guardiansofhongkong/26379

#PressFreedom #WhiteTerror
Television documentary leading to HK journalist’s arrest shortlisted for Asian Television Awards

On November 3, 2020, Hong Kong Police arrested RTHK journalist Choy Yuk-ling (a.k.a. #BaoChoy) for violating the Road Traffic Ordinance, concerning searches done at an openly accessible Transport Department database on car owner information. The searches were carried out for a television documentary about an alleged police-mobster collusion in July 2019.

The television documentary, titled "7.21 Who Owns the Truth", showed white-clad mobsters carrying weapons gathered in Yuen Long town area before attacking passengers of West Rail train at Yuen Long Station. Police officers sighted at neighbouring scenes failed to intervene and showed friendly gestures towards them.

A day after Bao Choy was arrested, the said television documentary she produced was reportedly shortlisted for the 25th Asian Television Awards, a substantial recognition of Choy's professionalism.

[Editor’s Notes
The Asia Television Awards, held since 1996, are the most prominent and recognised events in the Asian television industry, with a judging panel of more than 60 professionals from different regions.]

Source: Cupid News #Nov4 https://www.facebook.com/117540932243292/posts/680432435954136/?d=n

======
Related articles

Hong Kong Police arrest #RTHK producer Bao Choy, #HKJA: 'Police is picking on media'
https://publielectoral.lat/guardiansofhongkong/26518

Arrested News Docu Producer Reminds Journalists: Carry on what we ought to do
https://publielectoral.lat/guardiansofhongkong/26384

Police Arrests Journalist of News Programme Addressing Police-Triad Alleged Collusion during Yuen Long 7.21 Triad Attack
https://publielectoral.lat/guardiansofhongkong/26378

#YuenLong721 #Professionalism #PoliceState #PoliticalPersecution #ChoyYukLing #HongKongConnection #AwardWinning #AsiaTelevisionAwards

#RTHK #PressFreedom
Patrick Li Criticises LMF’s Cursing Songs as “Indecent” and Unsuitable as the Interviewee. All Programs in RTHK Need His Approval Before Airing

Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Li, who had no media experience, was brought as an outside manager and became the Director of Broadcasting. Only four days since his office, he unleashed his swaggering. Li held an Editor Meeting with all department heads of RTHK. In Apple Daily’s exclusive news, Li stated in the meeting that all programs within that week need his approval before airing. Among the Public Affair Programs in his “approval scope”, Hong Kong Connection will be about animal rights; This Week will focus on movies, while Hong Kong Stories will air an interview with the band LMF. Li criticised that LMF was indecent with their cursing in songs and suggested that other interview guests should be invited.

#LMF #PatrickLi #DirectorofBroadcasting #EditorialFreedom #Censorship

Source: Apple Daily, #Mar4

Read more
⬇️⬇️⬇️

#Censorship
Board Of Advisors Issued Statement Criticizing Director Of Broadcasting's Attempt To Turn #RTHK Into Government Propaganda Machine

Patrick Li, former Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs and current Director of Broadcasting, has been seen constantly interfering with the public broadcaster RTHK’s programs since he took office in early March 2021.

In a statement issued on March 27, 2021, 19 members of the RTHK Board of Advisors criticized Li's intention to turn RTHK into a government propaganda machine.

The statement mentioned that Li has misinterpreted editorial independence as “editorial independence of RTHK” and stressed that it should not be defined by a small group of management on their personal stance and political mission.

The statement demanded Patrick Li to immediately explain the reasons and criteria for canceling or changing programs, and abolish the mechanism of sending program proposals to the Editorial Board for pre-screening.

The petition included signatures including Barrister Randy Shek, Mr. Francis Fong, Honorary President of The Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, Ms. Phyllis Cheung, Executive Director of Hong Kong Unison, Professor Lisa Leung, Associate Professor of Department of Cultural Studies at Lingnan University, Ms. Leticia Wong, District Council member , Mr. Warren Tam Ka-chun and Mr. Sin Chung-kai.

This petition listed a series of incidents related to Li, including the request for previewing programs such as “Hong Kong Connection”《鏗鏘集》 , “Viewpoint 31” 《視點31》; removing parts of the interview within programs of “Hong Kong Stories: The Pandemic Walker” 《香港故事：疫行者》, “LegCo Review” 《議事論事》and “The Pulse” 《脈搏》; and requesting staff to submit program proposals to an editorial committee composed of the Director and directorate staff for approval in early stages of program production.

Source: Stand News #March27

https://www.thestandnews.com/politics/%E6%95%B4%E8%82%85%E6%B8%AF%E5%8F%B0-19-%E5%90%8D%E7%AF%80%E7%9B%AE%E9%A1%A7%E5%95%8F%E5%9C%98%E7%99%BC%E8%81%B2%E6%98%8E-%E6%96%A5%E6%9D%8E%E7%99%BE%E5%85%A8%E4%BB%A4%E6%B8%AF%E5%8F%B0%E6%B7%AA%E6%94%BF%E5%BA%9C%E5%AE%A3%E5%82%B3%E6%A9%9F%E5%99%A8/

#Journalism #Propaganda #PatrickLi #StateMachine #FailedState

#OpinionArticle #Court #PoliticalSuppression
"I Do Not Plead Guilty": Hong Kong Journalist Facing Legal Challenge for Unveiling Suspected Police-Triad Collusion

[Editor's note: This is an opinion article written by Au Ka-lun, a veteran journalist in Hong Kong.

In this article, Au recounted what happened during a court hearing where Bao Choy, a journslist working for the public broadcaster RTHK, was charged by the Hong Kong authorities for "giving false statement". The case has stirred up the population's outcry for censoring media freedom and infringing free speech.]

On March 24, 2021, in the courtroom of the Western Magistrate’s Courts in Hong Komg, veteran journalist Bao Choy Yuk-ling resonantly said “I do not plead guilty”.

It is noteworthy that Choy said “I do not plead guilty" (我不認罪) instead of “I plead not guilty” (我唔認罪).

Bao Choy is a professional broadcaster who knows well the subtle difference between “do not” (不) and “Not” (唔) in Cantonese.

In Cantonese, the negation word that is pronounced “ng” is hard to sound out loudly, making it more difficult to be heard and message less affirmative.

Comparatively speaking, the sentence “I do not plead guilty” is more resounding and powerful.

Although I cannot see Bao Choy’s eyes and face through the screen, her clear response to the Court--by saying “I do not plead guilty” twice--found resonance outside the wall of the courtroom.

I heard not only her determination and defiance, but also her unyielding spirit with no fear, complaint and regret.

During the court hearing, the entire news documentary program, Hong Kong Connection: The Truth of 721. Perhaps, which was produced by Choy, was shown.

All those inside and outside the courtroom watched the investigative news programme, which is about the triad attack on pro-democracy protesters and passersby in Yuen Long on July 21, 2019, together.

We saw footages where a large group of white-clad gangsters gathered in the early afternoon; we even saw plain-clothes police officers witnessing the gathering of these Triad members.

The documentary recorded the suspected collusions between the police and the gangsters; questioned the police’s leniency towards the Triad; and demonstrated the journalists’ persistence in reporting the truth.

However, the Hong Kong authorities has deliberately tossed these facts aside. They charge a journalist for checking the car plates and owners' information.

It is a simple case, in which both the prosecution and the defendant did not summon a witness.

The case is upright and aboveboard, leaving Bao Choy nothing to defend for herself but holding her head high and said, “I do not plead guilty.”

Source: Stand News; #Mar24

https://www.thestandnews.com/court/%E8%94%A1%E7%8E%89%E7%8E%B2-%E6%88%91%E4%B8%8D%E8%AA%8D%E7%BD%AA/

#BaoChoy #AuKaLun #Journalism #Professionalism #RTHK

#Censorship #PoliticalSuppression
#RTHK terminates the contract of critically acclaimed reporter #NabelaQoser

In Hong Kong, the public broadcaster RTHK refused to renew the contract of journalist Nabela Qoser, who is known for her professionalism and critical stance.

Since 2019, the pro-Beijing camp and figures have been attacking Qoser after she raised sharp questions during government press conferences.

Although the station has earlier announced that Qoser was wrongly accused by the complaints, RTHK reopened the investigation in October 2020. Citing the ongoing probe as a reason, RTHK terminated Qoser's civil service contract in January 2021, though she was employed in 2017. The public broadcaster further switched her to a 120-day contract, before terminaring it in May 2021.

Qoser has to leave the station by the end of May 2021.

Source: Stand News #May3
https://bit.ly/3vD3Ylr

#Journalism

#Censorship #Erasure
Chinese University of Hong Kong Deletes Content on General Education Salon

While the public broadcaster #RTHK was deleting programmes on YouTube, the General Education (#GE) Salon of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (#CUHK) has also been found deleting its own videos on its Youtube channel.

It used to be a platform where professors share their knowledge relating to practical experiences in Hong Kong. The videos deleted include “1984 and the Brave New World” , “On Liberty” and Benny Tai's “the Rule of Law Culture”

Professor Chow Po-chung, a speaker on the channel and well-known public intellectual, is shocked by the news. “These are a kind of public resource! Of course I wish they can be left undeleted.”

Source: Stand News #May4
http://www.thestandnews.com/society/%E4%B8%AD%E5%A4%A7%E9%80%9A%E8%AD%98%E6%B2%99%E9%BE%8D%E6%95%B8%E5%8D%81%E6%A2%9D-youtube-%E7%89%87-%E6%B6%88%E5%A4%B1-%E5%8C%85%E6%8B%AC%E6%88%B4%E8%80%80%E5%BB%B7%E4%B8%BB%E8%AC%9B-%E6%B3%95%E6%B2%BB%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96-%E5%91%A8%E4%BF%9D%E6%9D%BE-%E9%A9%9A%E8%A8%9D/

#PoliceState #SelfCensorship #Youtube #GeneralEducation

Former Political Satire Host Leaves Hong Kong for #Taiwan: "Sorry for Not Being Able to Say Goodbye"

On July 11, 2021, Tsang Chi-ho, a radio and TV host who was suddenly sacked by the public broadcaster #RTHK in June 2021, announced on Facebook that he has left Hong Kong for Taiwan. Tsang apologized for not being able to tell and say goodbye to his friends in advance.

Tsang wrote, "I woke up and realised that a 'Hong Kong' that is not Hong Kong anymore." He said he missed his friends a lot.

"In each of our heart, there lie many people, happenings and thousands of words. The path thereafter we will continue to walk," Tsang wrote in his post.

Many netizens left words of encouragement to Tsang: "Safety comes first," "As long as you and your family are well," and "Thank you for what you have done for Hong Kong" among others.

Taiwanese netizens also told Tsang "Welcome to Taiwan".

[Editor's note: #TsangChiHo is one of the hosts of the famous political satire #Headliner produced by RTHK. Under political pressure, the long-running popular program has been suspended. The public broadcaster RTHK termimated Tsang's contract with immediate effect in June 2021, despite the popularity of another radio show he was hosting.]

Source: Stand News #Jul11
https://bit.ly/2UCGq30

#PoliticalSuppression #Exile #Migration

'City Forum’ going off air after broadcasting for 41 years; "Uncles of Victoria Park" may become history

Sources say that the RTHK programme "City Forum" has been discontinued. The programme is currently on its annual summer break; while it would resume in the second week of September in previous years, RTHK will not be bringing it back this year.

Responding to inquiries, RTHK says that its programming and personnel arrangements are internal matters, and declines to comment. Citing its charter, RTHK emphasizes that it has editorial independence.

City Forum was launched on 13th April, 1980, and had been well received by the public duing its 41-year run. It was usually hosted in Victoria Park, and allows time for attending citizens to take the mic to voice their opinions. Some attendees spoke particularly intensely and had caught the attention of the local press, who affectionately referred to them as "uncles of Victoria Park" and "brothers of Victoria Park".

According to the RTHK website, the programme aims to encourage freedom of speech, reflect public opinion, and provide an open space for citizens to voice their ideas. Topics discussed at the forum covers a wide range of topics in Hong Kong, including livelihood issues, culture, education, finance, the legal system, and many more. The website says that it aims to continue bringing together public opinions "like many streams forming a great river."

#RTHK #CityForum #SpeakersCorner #FreedomOfSpeech

Source: Stand News; #Sept4
https://thestandnews.page.link/m7YzXZBTayXgw9tA7

#Censorship #PressFreedom
Hong Kong Public Broadcaster cuts pro-democracy representation in Advisory Panel overseeing programme quality

A Hong Kong public broadcaster, Radio & Television Hong Kong (#RTHK), announced on May 10 that it is set to streamline its consultation framework.

Under the new framework, the advisory panel on programme standards that comprised several members of pro-democracy parties have ceased operation since April 2022. However, panellists from the pro-establishment camp can be retained.

Although Tik Chi-yuen, a member of the Advisory Panel, told the reporters that he was surprised by the RTHK's action, he defended it and said that it doesn't mean RTHK is not listening to public opinion.

Another member Fung Ying-him, a representative of Our Hong Kong Foundation supporting the new framework, said such an arrangement was "fine", as the Advisory Panel did not have an active role, but only met once a year.

Source: Inmediahk, #May12
https://bit.ly/3sviEny

#TikChiYuen #FungYingHim

#Censorship #Education
Authorities Remove Teaching Materials on Human Rights and Protesting in Hong Kong

The Education Bureau (#EDB) in Hong Kong has been promoting values education in recent years, and it is rating the "National identity" and "law-abiding" as one of the most important values.

It is also found that some learning and teaching resources under the "Human Rights Education" category have been chopped with the latest website update, including group projects to collect press clippings for demonstrations, studying "why protesters have their demands", etc.

As the 33rd anniversary of the June Fourth Incident approaches, the timing of this update becomes sensitive, though the Education Bureau said yesterday that the recent update "has nothing to do with the June Fourth Incident, so there's no need to make unnecessary speculations".

In the Education Bureau's original framework, students are expected to "respect human rights". These wordings were removed in the pilot version of the "Values Education Curriculum Framework" launched last year.

In addition, the recommendation to students to "cherish freedom and respect the freedom of others" through the #RTHK programme "City Forum" was also removed.

A primary school principal, who did not wish to be named, said she felt helpless about the change in the teaching resources. She said that despite the clear new content, some of the removed items should be available for teaching, but becoming a grey area after the #NationalSecurityLaw came into effect. She worried that teaching such materials might touch on sensitive topics and lead to "consequences".

"For example, teachers should have taught the June 4 incident on June 4, but now they feel that they could no longer teach it under the National Security Law. There's a lot of pressure on the schools and the teachers, that we don't know if anyone would complain about what we teach to the authority," she said.

Source: Mingpao #Jun04

#NSL #Education #June4

https://bit.ly/3yiZ0yo

Famed Hong Kong Author Ni Kuang Passed Away at 87; Novel Warned of Doom if Hong Kong Lost Its Freedom

Hong Kong author Ni Kuang passed away at home on July 3, 2022 at 87 years of age. A prolific Chinese-language novelist and screenwriter, he was the author of numerous celebrated science fiction novels, including the long-running Wisely series and Dr. Yuen series.

His death was widely mourned by Hong Kong's netizens as well as fellow writers. Author Sai Shing Sun, who is a friend of Ni and had long considered him to be his godbrother, posted on Facebook: "Big Brother Ni had left this afternoon." Columnist and writer Chip Tsao posted a photo of him and Ni together, and remembered him as "the most clear-minded individual in the Chinese-speaking world these past 70 years".

Ni appeared on an #RTHK talk show three years ago, where he and veteran lawyer Paul Shieh discussed his novel "Chasing the Dragon" (追龍). The story revolved around a great city in the east, and it was prophesied that it would lose its great qualities, and the city would thus perish.

An excerpt from "Chasing the Dragon" reads:

"To destroy a great city, the cause doesn't have to be a natural catastrophe; it could also be a man-made disaster. And it is not necessarily a war; but a few words of a few people, the foolish and ignorant acts of a few people - it is enough make a great city completely die. You don't have to destroy its buildings. You don't have to kill a single inhabitant. You can even make it appear the same as before on the outside. You only need to make its great qualities disappear, and city would then perish and die."

Ni, who fled China after the Communist Party came to power, said on the program that the novel was a political allegory for Hong Kong.

"Hong Kong was liberated, just like Shanghai was liberated, by the Communists. They came to power with their own principles. People talk about 'One Country Two Systems' this and that, and I only laughed at them for being so easily duped. They asked me why; I said I don't even believe that One Country Two Systems exists. What do you mean it's damaged? The question is moot.

"Communists do whatever they want. Communists promised One Country Two Systems; since when were Communists trustworthy? They never followed through a single promise all these years."

If Hong Kong were to lose its freedom, he said on the 2019 show, then Hong Kong's great quality would be destroyed. "[They would] be unreasonable, and restrict people's freedoms ... mainly the freedom of speech. It's the mother of all freedoms. Without freedom of speech, you have no other freedoms."

source: In-MediaHK.net #Jul4
https://bit.ly/3a9pWHA

#NiKuang #HongKongLiterature #FreedomOfSpeech #OneCountryTwoSystems #CCP