Respected HK broadcaster faces uncertain fate

HONG KONG, Feb 6 (Reuters) For decades now, broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong has held a trusted place in the public eye as a champion of editorial freedom, not unlike the BBC after which it was modelled.

RTHK, which functions as a government department with full public funding, is arguably the most liberal and critical public broadcaster operating on Chinese soil today.

Its airwaves buzz with talk-show barbs against contentious government policies and human rights cases in China, including the five-year jailing of Singapore Straits Times journalist Ching Cheong on spying charges.

Now, some say, a major public broadcasting review initiated by the city's government last year threatens to mute its unique voice and heighten tensions in an already bristling newsroom.

Critics call the review an ill-disguised attempt to muzzle RTHK under pressure from conservatives in Beijing, who in recent years have been cracking down on already scant mainland media freedom -- despite some relaxation of rules for foreign reporters in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics.

RTHK's struggle to resist becoming a government mouthpiece began in the 1980s during British colonial rule, and is by no means unusual for a public broadcaster, the BBC included.

''It's been a sort of incremental struggle to win independence if you like -- just flexing your muscles and doing things,'' said Cliff Bale, RTHK's head of English news.

Pressure from government and hard-line Beijing voices, both explicit and implicit, surfaced especially after sensitive interviews, such as those with Taiwan politicians like Vice-President Annette Lu.

But RTHK's present plight mirrors the tensions that have simmered in Hong Kong since the colony reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, and incessant fears that Beijing would further erode the latitude now enjoyed in one of Asia's freest media arenas.

Raymond Wong, a veteran former news executive handpicked by the government to head the review committee, parries accusations that there is any hidden censorship agenda. He argues the review will bring a much-needed governance overhaul of a hulking, septuagenarian broadcaster that has suffered through a number of minor corruption scandals.

What is being proposed in a final report due in early February, Wong says, is for RTHK to separate fully from the government and instead become ''an independent, public broadcasting corporation''.

''Let's face it, the way RTHK's run right now is untenable,'' Wong told Reuters in an interview.

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