Media | RTHK replaces BBC World with Chinese radio

The 24-hour BBC World Service channel of Hong Kong’s RTHK was replaced with a state radio broadcast from China at midnight on Sunday. This is a move that was criticized by listeners.

Nearly 1,000 Hong Kong residents signed an online petition titled “RTHK: Give us back our BBC World Service,” with hopes of keeping the broadcast of the British channel.

However the SAR’s main public broadcaster continued in the move to reprogram the round-the-clock broadcast with China National Radio, a station that contains no sensitive or critical reporting on China.

The state-run broadcasts are mostly in Mandarin rather than Cantonese.

Although BBC World Service broadcasts will still run, the English broadcast channel will only be broadcast from 11 p.m. until 7 a.m. on weekdays, and occasionally on weekends.

Amen Ng, a spokeswoman for RTHK, told Reuters earlier there were no political considerations in the decision and the Chinese broadcaster would enhance cultural exchanges.

Some listeners argued that the move could hurt the public’s confidence in Hong Kong’s public broadcaster, while others said that the move was in line with a gradual “mainlandization” of Hong Kong, which has seen Beijing’s influence increase in the city’s many sectors.

As cited in a Reuters report, some RTHK staff said the move was made without broader consultation.

“Nobody knew anything about it. We were told in a meeting just before it was announced,” said a senior RTHK editorial employee who declined to be identified. “People see it as a negative thing. The BBC is generally regarded as independent, and [Chinese] state media is not,” he added.

Another said that there had been several incidents in which the RTHK’s editorial independence was pressured, including staff being heckled by pro-Beijing voices on radio talk-shows and public forums.