Hong Kong appeals court overturns media watchdog’s 2020 warning that RTHK show ‘insulted’ police
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong’s appeals court has overturned a 2020 warning by the city’s media watchdog that a satirical RTHK show had “insulted” police.
Three Court of Appeal judges unanimously dismissed the appeal lodged by the Communications Authority (CA) on Wednesday. The government body had said that a February 2020 episode of satirical RTHK programme Headliner denigrated police, failed to represent a broad range of views and had made no reasonable efforts to ensure factual accuracy.
The appeal stemmed from a judicial review filed by the Hong Kong Journalists Association and RTHK Programme Staff Union in August 2020, which saw High Court judge Anderson Chow rule partially in favour of both parties on different legal issues. Both the Communications Authority and the union then filed respective appeals.
Judicial reviews are considered by the Court of First Instance and examine the decision-making processes of administrative bodies. Issues under review must be shown to affect the wider public interest.
At the centre of the judicial review was the CA’s warning, made in 2020, in response to two skits aired in an episode of Headliner. In one of them, police were said to have a surplus stock of face masks compared to medics, and in another, an officer was filmed emerging from a rubbish bin and saying that he had not been getting much fresh air since beat patrolling duty was abolished.
The programme appeared to allude to news reports saying police had more face masks than the government’s medics, and that understaffing in the police force had caused the suspension of foot patrol in parts of the city.
The CA’s appeal came after the High Court’s Court of First Instance in 2021 partially upheld the authority’s decision to issue the warning.
In the judgement, Vice-President of the High Court’s Court of Appeal Susan Kwan disagreed with the CA, saying that RTHK had not breached a clause in their code stating that a broadcaster should not air material considered insulting to any persons or groups on the basis of social status.
She said while the skit had denigrated police, it was not on the basis of social status. When the sequences are considered “in the context of the entire segment,” it can be seen that the mockery was directed towards police work fighting Covid-19.
Her conclusion differed from that of High Court judge Chow. In 2021, when Chow handed down her judgement for the judicial review, he wrote that the skit had seemed to “targeting police officers as a group simply on account of their status.”
Accuracy and ‘range of views’
Accuracy was another point of contention in the legal challenge. The CA had accused RTHK of failing to make “reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy of the factual contents,” which is one of the provisions in the CA’s code.
See also: Remarks on axed satirical current affairs show rooted in verified fact, Hong Kong court hears
In Wednesday’s judgement, Chief Judge of the High Court Jeremy Poon cited RTHK in saying that the words uttered by the officer in the scene were done so in a satirical manner, and therefore, the “requirement of actual accuracy did not apply.”
Regarding the CA’s complaint that RTHK had not portrayed a “broad range of views” in the episode, the Court of Appeal sided with the lower court, which had determined that this complaint was not substantiated.
Chow, the High Court judge, said RTHK had twice invited the police for an interview to give them an opportunity to explain their position, but police had declined or ignored the invitations.
“As it was, RTHK’s invitations to the Police to respond to the relevant criticisms in Headliner, thereby presenting a broad range of views, were declined or ignored by the Police themselves,” Chow wrote.
Poon said he agreed with Chow, adding that the CA’s argument “misses the point that the invitations were a relevant factor that the Authority ought to have but failed to consider.”
Regarding the unions’ appeal stating that the issuing of such a warning had infringed their freedoms of expression, Kwan disagreed. She said there was nothing that “prevents them from expressing their own views by other means in the future.”
Headliner had been running for around 30 years until RTHK halted production in mid-2020. It was one of many changes the public broadcaster has made in recent years, which also included deleting some of its video archive and requiring staff to avoid contact with foreign governments or political organisations under new editorial guidelines.
In the wake of the protests and unrest in 2019, RTHK became the target of pro-Beijing supporters who accused the broadcaster of being sympathetic to the pro-democracy cause.
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