Lay-offs at Hong Kong TV station stoke new concerns over media freedom (updated)

Hong Kong Technology Venture Co

01/12/2020 13:49

(Adds comment from i-Cable)
    HONG KONG, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A Hong Kong television station
said on Tuesday about 100 staff were "affected" by a shake-up as
it seeks to remain competitive in a challenging economic
environment, a move that has re-ignited worries over media
freedom in China's freest city. 
    Local media said 40 workers had been laid off from i-Cable,
including the entire team from the station's award-winning
investigative section, News Lancet.
     i-Cable told Reuters the restructure "does not have
anything to do with media censorship". 
    "In the face of daunting challenges, the group has devoted
to adopting various measures to explore new business
opportunities for competitiveness enhancement and sustainable
development," the station said in a statement, adding that about
100 positions among the group's 1,300 staff would be affected. 
    "Under this circumstance, after a comprehensive review, it
was unavoidable for the group to carry out an organizational
restructure of various departments."
    The pay TV station did not say how many had been sacked.
    Wong Lai-ping, deputy chief of the station's China News
team, which covers human rights on the mainland and reported
from Wuhan province on the coronavirus outbreak, told reporters
she was among those laid off. Ten other members of the team had
resigned in protest against the lay-offs, she added.
    i-Cable journalists told Reuters the lay-offs had prompted
the heads of the station's China News, Hong Kong General News,
Finance News and Editing desk to resign. 
    Yau Ting-leung, 22, a journalist from the News Lancet
segment who said he was fired after about six months with the
company, said he was sceptical of the reason behind the
decision.
    "It's definitely media censorship. It's a pity they sacked
the entire team. There aren't many TV investigative news
programmes in Hong Kong," Yau said.
    The former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997
with the guarantee of freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland,
including freedom of speech. Protesters who took to the streets
for months last year complain that Communist Party rulers in
Beijing are whittling away at those freedoms, a charge Beijing
denies.
    The Hong Kong Journalists' Association said it was watching
the situation closely as media have already come under pressure
in the wake of a new national security law introduced by Beijing
on June 30.
    "This time the whole 'News Lancet' team of Cable News was
laid off and the team has often reported against/on the police
or the regime in the past year," HKJA said in a statement.
     i-Cable was founded in 1993 and is now owned by David Chiu,
chairman and CEO of Far East Consortium.

 (Reporting By Sharon Tam, Jessie Pang; Yanni Chow; Clare Jim,
Donny Kwok, Joyce Zhou; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing
by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Nick Macfie)
 ((annemarie.roantree@thomsonreuters.com; +852 97387151; Reuters
Messaging: annemarie.roantree.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))