''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. It mainly covers
Hong Kong politics,
economics,
education,
disadvantaged,
environmental protection, 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, etc. The programme premiered on 5 March 1978.
History
Evolution of programs
At an early stage, Hong Kong Connection consisted mainly of
drama components. After several reforms, the program turned into a documentary-like current events program.
In 2017,
RTHK released a 60 episodes program in
Chinese called The record of eras - Hong Kong Connection (The first episode and episode 51 are missing).
The program reviewed the history of
Hong Kong 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
The 2019 Yuen Long attack, also known as the 721 incident, refers to a mob attack that occurred in Yuen Long, a town in the New Territories in Hong Kong, on the evening of 21 July 2019. It took place in the context of the 2019–2020 Hong Ko ...
. 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 video received more than 3 million views (Chinese version).
Controversies
Arrest of journalist investigating 2019 Yuen Long attack
On 3 November 2020, the
police arrested freelance journalist
Choy Yuk-ling, who filmed a Hong Kong Connection episode about the
2019 Yuen Long attack
The 2019 Yuen Long attack, also known as the 721 incident, refers to a mob attack that occurred in Yuen Long, a town in the New Territories in Hong Kong, on the evening of 21 July 2019. It took place in the context of the 2019–2020 Hong Ko ...
. 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 and the
government have attacked
RTHK, 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
The 2019 Yuen Long attack, also known as the 721 incident, refers to a mob attack that occurred in Yuen Long, a town in the New Territories in Hong Kong, on the evening of 21 July 2019. It took place in the context of the 2019–2020 Hong Ko ...
and Hong Kong commemorations of the
Tiananmen Square massacre. 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 and
Facebook 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 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 Connection721 Yuen Long Nightmare
Cantonese-language television shows
English-language television shows
1978 Hong Kong television series debuts
Current affairs shows