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  • Walter's Blog.
  • Home
  • Introduction
  • About Walter
    • 1980 Joining Up - Grafton Street >
      • Arrival and First Impressions
      • First Week
      • Training
      • Passing Out
    • Yaumati Cowboy >
      • Getting on the Streets
      • Tempo of the City
      • Jumpers, pill poppers and the indoor BBQ
      • Into a Minefield.
    • Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon? >
      • Baptism By Fire
      • Kai Tak with Mrs Thatcher.
      • Home; The Boy Returns
  • 1984 - 1986
    • PTU Instructor & Getting Hitched
    • Having a go: SDU
    • Starting a Chernobyl family
    • EOD - Don't touch anything
    • Semen Stains and the rules
  • 1987 to 1992 - Should I Stay or Go?
    • Blue Lights, Sirens & Grenades
    • Drugs, Broken Kids & A Plane Crash
    • 600 Happy Meals Please!
    • Hong Kong's Best Insurance
    • Riding the Iron Horse
  • Crime in Hong Kong
    • Falling Crime Rates - Why?
    • Triads
  • History of Hong Kong Policing
    • History 1841 to 1941
    • History 1945 to 1967
    • Anatomy of the 50 cent Riot - 1966
    • The Fall of a Commissioner.
    • History 1967 to 1980
    • Three Wise Men from the West
    • The Blue Berets.
    • The African Korps and other tribes.
    • Getting About - Transport.
    • A Pub in every station
    • Bullshit Bingo & Meetings
    • Godber - The one who nearly got away.
    • Uncle Ho
  • Top 20 Films
    • 2001 - A Space Odyssey.
    • The Godfather.
    • Blade Runner
    • Kes
    • Star Wars
    • Aliens
    • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    • The Life of Brian
    • Dr Strangelove.
    • Infernal Affairs
    • Bridge on the River Kwai.
    • This Is Spinal Tap.
    • Chung King Express
    • An Officer and a Gentleman
    • PTU
    • Contact
    • Saving Private Ryan
    • Family Guy Star Wars
    • Zulu
    • Hard Day's Night
  • The Long Read
    • How The Walls Come Down
    • War in Ukraine - the narrative and other stuff.
    • The Hidden Leader
    • The Big Game
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Walter's Blog

"But how can you live and have no story to tell?" Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Reflections on recent events, plus the occasional fact free rant unfiltered by rational argument. 

"If you want to read a blog to get a sense of what is going on in Hong Kong these days or a blog that would tell you wh at life was like living in colonial Hong Kong, this blog, WALTER'S BLOG, fits the bill."  Hong Kong Blog Review

15/3/2020 4 Comments

Making Radio Waves

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"It's easy to opine that RTHK adopts an approach of misdirection and occasional hype - but not actual fakery."
Like the BBC in the UK, our very own public-funded broadcaster is facing a backlash. Unlike the BBC, RTHK has little hinterland; the TV output lacks gravitas and the viewer/lister figures are in decline. The station survives because of the taxpayers largesse.

Both the BBC and RTHK are unnatural beasts; broadcasters born of government, but operating outside government except for funding. 

The BBC will probably escape its current troubles; pruned but intact. But what does the future hold for RTHK?

Over the years, I've listened less and less to RTHK's output. Although, I have a lingering affection for ‘All the way with Ray’ as Uncle Ray accompanied me through Kowloon on late-night patrols with his pop classics. If up late at night, I'll still tune in. And, of course, Steve James's 'Afternoon Drive' is always worth a listen.  

RTHK is having its foundations shaken by recent events. Instead of reporting the headlines, the broadcaster is making the headlines, as it stands accused of many things; fake news, bias and smearing the Police with comedy.

Some of the criticism is overcooked, while other aspects have an element of truth. Former Chief Executive CY Leung has gone as far as to suggest that RTHK have its budget cut.


I can't get too worked up about the comedy aspect. I'm told the sketch causing the criticism is pretty low-grade stuff and not that funny. Yet, the Commissioner of Police felt compelled to write a complaint.

However, there are other details of RTHK's conduct that raise serious questions, and I'd like to examine these. For starters, if I've relearnt anything about the news media over the last year — local and international — treat their output with some caution.

While a few media outlets engage in outright falsehoods, the RTHK approach is a more subtle twisting of the truth. Some of this is their unwitting bias at play, whereas at times it looks wilful.


For the international media, their misdeed is distorted perception, laziness and omission. They've presented the rioting and protests as a straight-forward pro-democracy movement, which misses the mark somewhat.

After all, brave Hong Kongers standing up to mighty Beijing is an easy sell. Yet, this version of events is simplistic in the extreme because detailing the sectarian nature of the movement is a nuanced, challenging exercise. Then when the tanks didn't roll in, the Western media moved on.


It's easy to opine that RTHK adopts an approach of misdirection and occasional hype - but not actual fakery. Let me illustrate. 

In this story, RTHK asserts 'Boy fell after police barged in: restaurant manager'. This headline portrays officers as having 'barged' into a restaurant without justification with a tacit hint they caused a boy to fall from height. The use of emotive language appears designed with intent in the context of similar allegations involving a death. 

The fact that officers were pursuing suspects per their powers gets omitted. Moreover, video footage shows the boy, who was drinking underage, scrambling away over a wall and falling.

​Reading the headline, you could infer that the Police caused the boy to fall, which is wrong. 
By adjusting the sequence of events, a story can also change. 'Riot police move in, end rally in support of Uighurs'. This headline could read 'Protest violence prompts police action'. RTHK ignores the aspect that officers acted after criminal acts took place.

​That the peaceful rally went ahead uninterrupted is relegated. Again, what is the intent here?


Here's another one - 'Tear gas, pepper spray and clashes mar Christmas Eve'. That the officers responded to petrol bomb attacks gets mentioned later, but the headline appears designed to create an impression of the Police ruining Christmas celebrations.

This assertion comes backed-up by comments from the 'public' — what is remarkable is that RTHK has an uncanny ability to find such people. 


There are plenty of other examples of misdirection with emphasis on police actions while ignoring the build-up and protester violence.

​Handcuffed suspects are 'tied-up', and a rioter is 'protester beaten to the ground' when the video evidence shows he's restrained, struggles and then placed on the ground.


Meanwhile, on Radio 3's 'Backchat' — the flagship daily chat show — certain voices are allowed free rein to make wild allegations unchallenged. In contrast, pro-government people get taken to task at every turn. At times the presenters can't help themselves as their inclinations make them advocates.

And then they wonder why folks won't appear. Of course, the likes of Claudia Mo and Emily Lau are on speed-dial and ready to vent their bile with latitude. 


I have no doubt that RTHK will defend themselves with a riposte of "you are overreacting" or "we take criticism from both sides; thus, we must be getting something right." But then they would say that. Yet, the truth is slippery. 

RTHK has this to say about impartiality in its values statement.

There are generally more than two sides to any issue and IMPARTIALITY in factual programmes cannot be achieved by a mathematical balance. DUE IMPARTIALITY , however, does not require absolute neutrality on every issue of public concern or detachment from the fundamental principles of a just and open society.

​We will be failing in our duty if, in the attempt to upset no one, to disturb no institution, we limit, in any way, the comprehensiveness, fairness, sensitivity and open examination of issues and events. We must seek balance through the presentation of principal relevant viewpoints on matters of importance. If not able to be achieved within a single programme or news bulletin, it will be achieved within a reasonable period.


These are an intriguing set of values that come with a great deal of equivocation, especially as regards neutrality. I was always under the impression that 'neutrality' didn't need qualifying. Maybe I'm old fashioned. 

​However, let's be clear, biased reporting with dodgy headlines is not merely a professional and moral disgrace; it's far more sinister. Most of all, it feeds the hatred simmering in our community.


It strikes me that if RTHK staff seek true independence, then why not cut loose to compete in the commercial world. Their output can then either live or die on its merits. ​
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4 Comments
Ian Cowieson
15/3/2020 08:13:42 pm

Absolutely bang on Walter.... the drip-drip-drip anti-police and govt output from RTHK these last 9 months has been nothing short of a disgrace in my humble opinion... coupled with its pretty low standard of programmes and news bulletins makes it a pretty shoddy product, yet being the only major English language it occupies an important position. I was reading one of their news bulletins recently on an "anniversary" of the Yuen Long July 21st incident and it was ludicrously slanted... calling it an "atrocity", etc etc.... made my blood boil......

Reply
Chris Emmett
15/3/2020 08:53:48 pm

Thanks again Waltrer for informative reportage. I wonder if the editorialisation of RTHK and other media outlets is coloured by TVB's experience. From here in the UK, I see a creeping climate of fear being imposed by those who claim to support freedom. A friend recently stayed with his wif'e's family in Tsueng Kwan O. His family and friends knew the pllice had nothing to do with Chow Tsz-Lok's fall from the car park but they warned him not to speak of it in public.

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Nury Vittachi
16/3/2020 03:19:51 pm

I really enjoyed reading that, Walter, good stuff--and I say that despite working as an RTHK contributor, and having done so for many years. Long live genuine honest, balanced free speech

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Latakia
16/3/2020 11:46:42 pm

And not a single condemnation of the violence against civilians and police from any of the Pro-Dems.

The sad irony of this entire disaster is that the only fatality, the only person who died directly from this was the 70 year old cleaner the media usually identified as "man surnamed Luo" as if to dehumanize or de-personalize him.

. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3037927/hong-kong-protests-police-treat-death-70-year-old-cleaner

Then there was this gem of a headline and follow up: "Hong Kong taxi driver beaten by mob denies he was paid to ram car into crowd of protesters" the implication by the nature of the question is that he DID get paid. Thugs made that up and the SCMP used it as the basis for "Mr. Prime Minister Can you categorically deny sir that you are a space alien who just ate 50 hot dogs?" I deny that. Next day: "PM Denies being a gluttonous space alien"

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3033050/hong-kong-taxi-driver-beaten-mob-denies-he-was-paid

Where was condemnation of thugs when the RTHK reporter was burned by the blowback of a petrol-bomb? That was a one-day story.

The seizure of 2500kg of explosives was a one-day story. Media didn't inquire into why some of those arrested were found at PolyU which is now supposed to be under tighter security....nothing. I saw it reported or posted as "police rounded up 17 suspects" or some such....

I could go on. But you nailed it.

Anyway, great post. Keep them coming.

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    Walter De Havilland was one of the last of the colonial coppers. He served 35 years in the Royal Hong Kong Police and Hong Kong Police Force. He's long retired. 

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