Ruling against RTHK’s satirical show justifiable: Lam Tai-fai

Lam Tai-fai, head of the RTHK advisory board said he found authorities’ ruling against a satirical program by public broadcaster RTHK reasonable, saying he was disappointed over the broadcaster’s multiple violations of the broadcasting regulations.

The Communications Authority yesterday ruled that three episodes of a satirical program - “Headliner” - by RTHK insulted and denigrated the police force, and has “strongly advised” the station to follow broadcasting regulations more closely.

Lam said the ruling is justifiable, urging the management of the broadcaster to finetune their regulatory regime, make sure all programs produced were up to standard with the Charter of Radio Television Hong Kong and the Generic Code of Practice on Television Programme Standards.

“RTHK as a public broadcaster must be held accountable to the community and serve its public purposes,  all programs produced must fall in line with the Charter along with their producers complying to the Producers' Guideline,” he said.

Lam also added that the management should enhance the training with their staff to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents.