Sacking Of Cable Reporters Political: Media Veteran

A veteran media executive has slammed the sacking of dozens of journalists at Cable TV news on Tuesday, calling it a politically motivated decision and an attempt to undermine people's right to know.

Around 100 staff at Cable TV were either made redundant or reassigned on Tuesday, with the broadcaster citing “daunting challenges” including the pandemic and the struggling economy and the need to explore new business opportunities.

The mass layoff included around 40 staff at the station’s news department, and among them, the entire team of its award-winning investigative programme, News Lancet. The sacking prompted more than two dozen journalists to resign en masse in protest.

Speaking after RTHK’s City Forum, the chief advisor of Commercial Radio, Stephen Chan, said, it was not sensible from a business point of view for Cable’s management to axe all reporters working for their own flagship programme.

Chan, who was TVB’s general manager and Commercial Radio’s former chief executive officer, said he believed this suggested the sackings were more politically, than economically, motivated.

“As we all know, people subscribe [to] Cable TV because of its news… more because of its investigative journalism,” he said.

“What they’re doing now is to get rid of the thing that gives its own brand. So if you [have] any reasonable sense - in an economic sense - from an operating point of view, you would not have done such a thing.”

But he thinks it was the owner of Cable TV itself, rather than pressure from Beijing or the SAR government, which led to the layoffs.

“When I say political, it doesn’t mean that the pressure comes from China or even comes from the Hong Kong government, it’s all a matter of how the owner of the entire operation views its position, its role in the media vis-à-vis its other business roles. So I think it was more political in that respect.”

Chan also described the move as a blatant sign of an attempt to undermine the general public’s right to know.

“What can you do? It’s a free capitalistic world. If those who have invested money in the operation, they are not happy to provide this service to Hong Kong people, then we can only accept that fact.”

Chan also urged the government to provide more resources for RTHK, instead of what he called “squeezing” it, so it could better serve its role as a public broadcaster.

“I cannot see why up to now it hasn’t been given the appropriate resources to develop its new broadcasting centre and its equipment.”

“You were given a channel to run, without giving you the resources, what does it mean? It means you can only provide a very limited amount of things for Hong Kong people.”

Chan also expressed concern over the future of journalism here, citing the recent arrest of RTHK producer, Bao Choy, who is being prosecuted for allegedly making false declarations while searching for vehicle registration details.

The information was used for an RTHK documentary about the mob attack in Yuen Long on July 21 last year.

“What she’s doing was trying to get the truth of Hong Kong people, why should she be treated in such a manner?” he asked. “I think this is sinister, very sinister move, unbelievable, incredible, and totally unacceptable," Chan said.