HKU Campus TV Apologises Over 'bullying' Video

Campus TV, operated by the students’ union of the University of Hong Kong, has apologised and removed a video that has been criticised as bullying and containing hate speech against mainlanders.

The video was published on Tuesday to welcome new students to the campus.

In the video, the name of the institution was changed to "The University of Xiang Gang" – the pinyin for Hong Kong – and said the university welcomes "a new cohort of mainland students and spies of the Big Brother".

"Whatever you choose to study, XGU closes doors to institutional autonomy and academic freedom," it had said, adding "To a new dystopian era of oppression and tyranny: being puppets of an authoritarian regime, as well as sacking a professional legal scholar based on political interests," referring to the recent sacking of legal scholar Benny Tai.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the university management had slammed the video as bullying and hate speech.

"We are distressed that a video recently circulated by the HKU Students’ Union’s Campus TV contains bullying and hate speech," the university said.

"The video's depictions of a specific group of the University’s students were particularly offensive, hurtful, insensitive and unfair. These depictions discriminate against these students solely because of their place of origin, something that would be condemned anywhere in the world."

"They do not represent the views of the majority of the HKU community," the statement said, calling for an apology.

In a response issued on the early hours of Thursday, Campus TV said the video was meant to be a parody and was not intended to attack anyone.

The statement said it apologises to all those affected and for "inaccurate use of words and the misunderstanding caused".

It said they just wanted to point out – through parody – the institution’s unbalanced resource allocation, interference into the university's management, and repeated failings on the university's part to listen to the opinions of students.