HONG KONG — Not lengthy after Patrick Li took over because the government-appointed director of Hong Kong’s public broadcaster, a digital lock pad appeared exterior his workplace entrance.
Previously, the director’s workplace had been the place staffers on the broadcaster, Radio Tv Hong Kong, gathered to air grievances with administration selections: programming adjustments, labor disputes. Now, the lock pad signaled, such complaints had been now not welcome.
For a lot of staff, the closed room was an emblem of the broader transformation sweeping by means of RTHK, the 93-year-old establishment honored by residents as some of the trusted information sources in Hong Kong’s as soon as freewheeling media panorama.
RTHK was as soon as in comparison with the BBC for its fierce editorial independence. However underneath a sweeping nationwide safety legislation that Beijing imposed final 12 months to silence dissent, many say it now extra carefully resembles China Central Tv, the propagandistic Chinese language state broadcaster.
Since Mr. Li arrived in March, episodes that includes interviews with authorities critics have been dropped hours earlier than they had been to air. Historic dramas concerning the Chinese language Communist Social gathering fill prime-time slots. Complete reveals have been eradicated — with hosts informed this might be their final taping solely after they recorded it.
New editorial tips issued in September order staffers to “help within the promotion” of the federal government’s work “on safeguarding nationwide safety.” They’re additionally to “be cautious in contacts” with international governments and “political organizations.”
The directives come as President Xi Jinping of China tightens his iron grip, most notably at a high-level Communist Social gathering assembly this week in Beijing that exalted his management and strengthened his potential to retain management for a few years.
Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief government, has praised Mr. Li for doing “precisely what I count on from a chief editor.” Quickly afterward, Mrs. Lam introduced that she had been given her personal RTHK speak present.
RTHK, which doggedly investigated official misconduct throughout anti-government protests in 2019, was lengthy anticipated to return underneath strain. Below the safety legislation — imposed to quell the protests — officers have dismantled Hong Kong’s civil society and attacked media shops deemed unfriendly.
Nonetheless, a dozen present and former staffers, a few of whom spoke on situation of anonymity, mentioned they had been astonished by the pace and boldness of the adjustments — not least due to the broadcaster’s historical past of heading off incursions on its independence.
“Previously, there have been plenty of checks and balances,” mentioned Tsang Chi-Ho, who co-hosted a long-running satire present and radio program earlier than his firing this summer time. Now, “in the event that they reduce a program, what are you able to do? There’s no legislator to oppose it, no newspaper to say that’s incorrect. Nobody can protest on the streets.”
“Their aim is to inform everybody: Simply neglect the RTHK of the previous.”
RTHK declined to make Mr. Li obtainable for an interview. In a press release, the broadcaster mentioned it might not touch upon inside issues, however that adjustments had been made in RTHK’s programming as a result of it had change into “a reason behind public concern.”
“RTHK is a public service broadcaster however not a spokesman of the federal government,” the assertion mentioned. “RTHK aspires to be probably the most credible supply of stories and public data for the Hong Kong group.”
For proof of RTHK’s previous willingness to flout the federal government, viewers wanted look no additional than Mr. Tsang’s satirical tv present, “Headliner.” One recurring sketch featured the character of a domineering empress, who stood in for leaders starting from Mr. Xi to Mrs. Lam. Although the present obtained complaints from authorities supporters, high editors insulated the employees, Mr. Tsang mentioned.
Final 12 months, “Headliner” grew to become a harbinger of the brand new RTHK. Executives suspended the present after the Hong Kong police complained about an episode mocking the drive.
Just a few months later, the police arrested the producer of an investigation into the authorities’ delayed response to a 2019 mob assault on protesters. Then, in February, officers launched a report denouncing RTHK’s “critically insufficient” editorial practices. They introduced that the highest editor, a veteran journalist, would get replaced by Mr. Li, a civil servant with no journalistic background.
Mr. Li instantly started requiring producers on new packages or probably “contentious” episodes to submit detailed proposals to a nine-person management committee.
The proposal type, in accordance with two individuals who reviewed the doc, asks whether or not complaints have ever been lodged in opposition to the producer; for an outline of probably controversial content material, together with background music; and for details about visitors, together with whether or not they’re “identified to be related” with “radical political teams.”
Six reveals have stopped airing since Mr. Li took over, starting from a weekly spherical desk for social scientists to a nightly journey and leisure program that made manner for mainland dramas.
One other discontinued present was “The Pulse,” a present affairs program that went viral after a World Well being Group official was requested in an interview whether or not Taiwan must be a member. (China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, has shut it out of the physique.)
When taping the ultimate episode of “The Pulse” this summer time, the host, Steve Vines, signed off saying, “In these unsure instances, who is aware of what’s going to occur sooner or later. However for now, goodbye and good luck.”
That was reduce earlier than airing.
Others didn’t even have the possibility to attempt to say farewell. Leung Kai-chi, who co-hosted the social scientist spherical desk, obtained a WhatsApp message at 8:36 p.m. the night time earlier than a scheduled taping.
“Administration says that beginning in July, RTHK Channel 31 may have an all-new marketing campaign, and there will probably be new programming preparations,” mentioned the message, which was despatched from a producer to the co-hosts and which Mr. Leung shared with The Occasions. “We had been informed to instantly cease manufacturing.”
The hosts instantly replied: “Take care.”
“We perceive how a lot strain they’re underneath,” Mr. Leung mentioned.
Reveals nonetheless operating are unrecognizable to those that made them.
Throughout Fanny Kwan’s 13 years producing the information program “Hong Kong Connection,” she steadily turned out episodes, interviewing exiled Chinese language dissidents and fogeys of autistic kids. However when Mr. Li arrived, the brand new editorial committee vetoed a narrative, about pupil activists, she had been filming for weeks. Two different episodes by colleagues had been additionally scrapped.
Ms. Kwan and different producers then strategized over crafting proposals that may move muster, however two extra pitches had been rejected: one about commemorations of the Tiananmen Sq. bloodbath, and the opposite a follow-up to the 2019 mob assault.
Ms. Kwan suspected the rejections had as a lot to do together with her crew as with the subjects. Not lengthy after rebuffing her pupil activism episode, executives tapped exterior contractors to make their very own “Hong Kong Connection” episodes.
Whereas Ms. Kwan and her colleagues waited, generally for weeks, to listen to again on their proposals, the brand new crew churned out episodes on subjects like electrical automobiles and Chinese language lion dances.
Since April, simply 5 episodes of “Hong Kong Connection” have been produced by the unique crew. No episodes touched on the political crackdown.
“It’s our story,” Ms. Kwan mentioned of the crackdown. “If Patrick Li didn’t come, I feel we’d have been very, very busy.”
One other political present, “LegCo Assessment,” was outsourced after executives accused the producers of violating the approval course of. A discussion board with candidates in December’s legislative election was reassigned from the Public and Present Affairs division to Infotainment and Selection, in accordance with three folks with data of the matter.
Steering away from politics is not any assure of approval both.
In August, Kong Yiu-Wing, an artist, obtained an interview request from an RTHK arts program about his exhibit “Hong Kongers Archive of 100 Objects,” a set of artifacts exploring Hong Kong identification.
Mr. Kong was apprehensive. Professional-Beijing figures have attacked the thought of a discrete Hong Kong identification as unpatriotic, and Mr. Kong was uncertain how the brand new RTHK would deal with the subject.
When he met with the producers, they requested technical questions on his course of. They didn’t movie extra politically tinged artifacts within the exhibit, like copies of pro-Beijing and pro-democracy newspapers, focusing as a substitute on classic recording tools.
The day earlier than the air date, an RTHK staffer referred to as Mr. Kong to inform him this system had been scrapped by higher-ups.
“I actually by no means would have anticipated this,” Mr. Kong mentioned. “Mainly each political matter that we might keep away from, we already averted.”
Mr. Li has defended his selections as “very regular” editorial processes. Assembly with legislators in Might, he acknowledged blocking episodes however mentioned editorial independence didn’t imply independence for particular person manufacturing groups.
Even pro-Beijing lawmakers questioned his strategy. “Folks will fear that what you’re doing is a bit overdone,” one lawmaker, Chan Kin-por, mentioned.
Most staffers interviewed mentioned that they had been drawn to RTHK by its mission. As a public broadcaster, they mentioned, RTHK typically made academic or socially acutely aware packages that industrial broadcasters wouldn’t. Although funding got here from the federal government, an ethos was instilled in all new hires: RTHK’s bosses had been the folks of Hong Kong.
Many journalists spent their whole careers at RTHK. “Folks used to speak about working for RTHK as a dream job,” Mr. Leung, the previous social science spherical desk host, mentioned.
Now, paranoia pervades the headquarters. The brand new employees tips stipulate that each one editorial selections are confidential; breaches might warrant punishment. Communication with higher-ups have to be completed by means of a strict hierarchy; particular person producers don’t communicate immediately with the editorial committee. Episodes multiple 12 months previous have been deleted from RTHK’s web site.
About one-third of the Public and Present Affairs division has departed. Three senior executives left inside two weeks of Mr. Li’s appointment. Mr. Li has a brand new deputy — a switch from the Marine Division.
Ms. Kwan, of “Hong Kong Connection,” has left, too. In July, she held a goodbye get together with eight different colleagues who had agreed to give up collectively — partly to keep away from having too many farewell occasions.
For just a few months afterward, Ms. Kwan texted ex-colleagues nonetheless on the station to ask how they had been doing. Ultimately, she stopped.
“As a result of I can sense that nothing modified there, actually,” she mentioned. “Nothing higher. Even worse.”
