Court of Appeal dismisses authority's appeal against satirical show for insulting police

The Court of Appeal has ruled against the Communications Authority (CA) appeal regarding the content of a satirical program "Headliner" -- produced by public broadcaster RTHK -- has breached the TV program code of practice for insulting the police.

The court heard that three episodes of Headliner, a now-axed current affairs program, aired between March and April 2020 were found by the CA's investigation to have insulted and disparaged police, and misled the public.

The concerned contents were labeled as satirizing the police's cancellation of beat patrols during the Covid-19 pandemic and the surplus stock of surgical masks. 

The RTHK Program Staff Union and the Journalists Association later filed a judicial review of the findings of the CA investigation. The High Court in 2021 ruled that the watchdog's conclusions were partially substantiated, but overthrew the finding that the two comedy sketches breached the TV program code for failing to express a sufficiently broad range of views and providing accurate program content.

The Communications Authority then appealed against the ruling.

Regarding the CA's appeal, the Court of Appeal ruled on Wednesday that the Headliner's contents were not likely to encourage hatred against or fear of, or denigrate or insult the police, nor does it violate the code of practice.

The judge agreed with the original ruling that linking the shortage of masks for doctors to the police having excess masks was not deemed an insult to the police. 

The original ruling that the contents about abolishing the foot patrols to be insulting the police and violated the code of practice was also revoked by the court.