HONG KONG - Hong Kong’s public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) has apologized for airing hate speech, denigrating and insulting police in one of its Chinese weekly shows.

The apology came Tuesday evening, hours after the Communications Authority (CA) issued a warning for the broadcaster asking it to properly comply with the TV Programme Code. The CA is of the view that the weekly show Headliner expressed one-sided opinions without offering accurate facts, while denigrating and insulting the city’s police force.

Freedom of speech is always protected under the Basic Law. But as a public broadcaster, RTHK must uphold and abide by the Charter of RTHK in discharging its duties, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah stressed

Meeting the press on the sidelines of a Legislative Council meeting on Wednesday, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah expressed his hope that the public would respect the CA’s stance and not make any criticism for holding different views. 

Freedom of speech is always protected under the Basic Law. But as a public broadcaster, RTHK must uphold and abide by the Charter of RTHK in discharging its duties, he stressed. 

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Yau will meet RTHK Board of Advisors to follow up on the station’s production and editorial system on Thursday.

The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau – the department supervising RTHK – demanded the public service broadcaster to offer an apology and a full review of the program production and editorial procedure on Tuesday.

In its release, the bureau termed the situation serious, saying that RTHK had repeatedly breached various provisions of the code through different programs.

Accepting the ruling, RTHK said it would suspend the show concerned after the current season ends. It will also conduct a review on how to develop the show "in an ever-changing social environment”.

The episode on Feb 14, which was widely criticized for maliciously defaming the city’s law enforcers, will also be removed, said the station. 

RTHK said it would suspend the show concerned after the current season ends. It will also conduct a review on how to develop the show "in an ever-changing social environment”

Aired since 1989, Headliner is a weekly show that the broadcaster produced to comment on social affairs. In the Feb 14 show, the host was dressed in a style similar to a police officer, with the neck and hands wrapped with rubbish bags. He emerged from a large rubbish bin at the beginning of the segment, spoke while standing inside of it, and retracted into the large rubbish bin and closed the lid at the end of the program.

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The CA said in its press release Tuesday that it had received complaints from more than 3,300 members of the public regarding the episode, which was aired on three channels of RTHK at 8 pm and 11:50 pm.

According to the complaints, the show "repeatedly and maliciously smeared, denigrated, insulted, defamed and mocked" the police and the efforts of the government and the police in fighting COVID-19, through "inaccurate, untruthful, misleading and biased contents".

In the ruling, the authorities said the segment on the rubbish bin “had nothing to do with any particular conduct or the work of the police, or public concerns on the way the police exercised their authority, but to denigrate the police as a social group, and was also a gratuitous attack on that entire group”.

“Notwithstanding the fact that the program was a political satire, the CA took the view that the portrayal of the host as such had denigrated and insulted the police as a whole,” it said. 

Contact the writer at heshusi@chinadailyhk.com