RTHK Should Stop Providing News, Says Regina Ip

Executive councillor and lawmaker Regina Ip has questioned whether there is any point in RTHK providing news services, saying the station should focus on areas that private broadcasters don't offer, such as classical music.

Ip, who's the chairwoman of the New People's Party, noted that RTHK costs taxpayers more than HK$1 billion a year, and said the government has to make sure the station is cost-effective.

At a Legco panel meeting, she said the public can turn to private broadcasters for their news and education programmes in Chinese.

"English news, perhaps, if you can hire people with better English," she said.

But Council Front lawmaker Chu Hoi-dick disagreed.

He said RTHK is “an important base where talent in journalism is groomed”, and more resources should be put into expanding the station's news services.

Director of Broadcasting Leung Ka-wing, who attended the panel meeting, said he was proud of the station's news departments, and he hoped people would continue to have faith in journalists working on the news in both Chinese and English.

Lawmakers at the panel meeting backed a proposal to make permanent a temporary deputy director position at RTHK that was initially created in 2011 to coordinate the station's development projects.

RTHK's staff union said it was surprised to hear Ip raise the question of whether the broadcaster should be providing news, given that it was not relevant to the matter under discussion.

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