''Hong Kong Connection'' (), formerly ''The Common Sense'', is a long-running

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...

documentary television programme produced by Hong Kong public broadcaster

RTHK Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service in Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econom ...

. It mainly covers

Hong Kong politics The politics of Hong Kong takes place in a framework of a political system dominated by its constitutional document, the Hong Kong Basic Law, its own legislature, the Chief Executive as the head of government and of the Special Administrativ ...

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

disadvantaged The "disadvantaged" is a generic term for individuals or groups of people who: * Face special problems such as physical or mental disability * Lack money or economic supportKingdom of Nepal: Economic and Social Inclusion of the Disadvantaged Poo ...

environmental protection Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair dam ...

, the current situation in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

international affairs International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...

, etc. The programme premiered on 5 March 1978.

History

Evolution of programs

At an early stage, Hong Kong Connection consisted mainly of

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

components. After several reforms, the program turned into a documentary-like current events program. In 2017,

released a 60 episodes program in

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

called The record of eras - Hong Kong Connection (The first episode and episode 51 are missing). The program reviewed the history of

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

using the thousands of stories from Hong Kong Connection, which has launched for more than 30 years. On 29 July 2019, ''Hong Kong Connection'' broadcast ''721 Yuen Long Nightmare'', introducing what happened in 2019 Yuen Long attack. In the program, Hong Kong Connection's reporters reconstructed the timeline of the attack through collecting the

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...

footage dated 21 July 2019. (video deleted, saved in

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

) The video received more than 3 million views (Chinese version).

Controversies

Arrest of journalist investigating 2019 Yuen Long attack

On 3 November 2020, the

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

arrested freelance journalist Choy Yuk-ling, who filmed a Hong Kong Connection episode about the 2019 Yuen Long attack. She was charged with misusing a government vehicle licensing database and making false statements to obtain information and records about car owners after trying to discover the owners of a few vehicles suspected of supplying weapons to the attackers who launched an indiscriminate attack on scores of people. The owners of cars were identified as rural village leaders. She checked a box to declare that the vehicle registration searches were for "other traffic and transport related matters". Other options available when accessing the database are "legal proceedings" and "sale and purchase of vehicle". While the previously available option "other purposes" had been scrapped, the magistrate said that Choy should have considered other means to obtain the information. The police dismissed allegations that the arrest was an attack on press freedom. Choy was found guilty on 22 April 2021 and fined HK$6,000. The

Foreign Correspondents Club Foreign Correspondents' Club is a group of clubs for foreign correspondents and other journalists. Some clubs are members only, and some are open to the public. Cambodia The Foreign Correspondents' Club in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, is ...

on 22 April strongly criticised the verdict as setting a "dangerous precedent" for "legal action against journalists for engaging in routine reporting".

Censorship

Following the 2019-2020 protests, the

pro-Beijing camp The pro-Beijing camp, pro-establishment camp, pro-government camp or pro-China camp refers to a political alignment in Hong Kong which generally supports the policies of the Beijing central government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) t ...

and the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

have attacked

, accusing the station of bias. A new director of broadcasting, Patrick Li, took charge of RTHK in March 2021. The broadcaster has seen an exodus of senior staff, and censorship of RTHK documentaries has been on the rise. In May 2021, it was announced that old episodes of RTHK programmes would be deleted from the Internet, including old episodes of ''Hong Kong Connection''. In May 2021, it was reported that RTHK management had rejected proposed new episodes on the 2019 Yuen Long attack and Hong Kong commemorations of the

Tiananmen Square massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

. Paul Lee Yin-chit, who headed production of ''Hong Kong Connection'', subsequently resigned from RTHK.

Deletion of online videos

On 3 May 2021, numerous videos on the RTHK

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

pages, including episodes of ''Hong Kong Connection'', were deleted. The deleted videos were all uploaded more than a year ago, and included ''721 Yuen Long Nightmare.'' A spokesperson for RTHK stated the measure aligned the policy of its social media platforms with its website, where only programmes from the past 12 months are viewable. However, the RTHK Programme Staff Union considered the videos as the common property of

HongKongers Hongkongers (), also known as Hong Kongers, Hong Kongese, Hongkongese, Hong Kong citizens and Hong Kong people, typically refers to residents of the territory of Hong Kong; although may also refer to others who were born and/or raised in the ...

, criticising the removal of videos as 'unreasonable' and 'unnecessary'.

Awards

Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU or APBU), formed in 1964, is a non-profit, professional association of broadcasting organisations. It currently has over 287 members in 57 countries and regions, reaching a potential audience of about 3 bil ...

commendation, 1983 – for episode ''Nurses in Hongkong'' * International Film and Television Festival of New York, Silver Medal, 1983 – for episode ''Vietnamese Refugees'' * Human Rights Press Award, 2021 – for episode ''7.21 Who Owns the Truth''{{cite news , last1=Ho , first1=Kelly , title=RTHK's Yuen Long doc and BBC's Xinjiang reporting win Human Rights Press Awards , url=https://hongkongfp.com/2021/05/06/breaking-rthks-yuen-long-doc-and-bbcs-xinjiang-reporting-win-human-rights-press-award/ , work=Hong Kong Free Press , date=6 May 2021 , access-date=25 May 2021 , archive-date=25 May 2021 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210525095357/https://hongkongfp.com/2021/05/06/breaking-rthks-yuen-long-doc-and-bbcs-xinjiang-reporting-win-human-rights-press-award/ , url-status=live

References

External links

RTHK Hong Kong Connection

721 Yuen Long Nightmare
Cantonese-language television shows English-language television shows 1978 Hong Kong television series debuts Current affairs shows