An LGBTQ radio show previously scrapped by government-run RTHK is cancelled by another station…
Hong Kong’s Metro Radio has abruptly halted plans to relaunch radio programme We Are Family, an LGBTQ show axed by government-funded broadcaster RTHK three years ago, its host has said.
Brian Leung, the host of We Are Family, said on the show’s Facebook page on Wednesday that Metro Radio invited him in April to relaunch We Are Family on Metro Info Live, one of the radio’s channels.
The invitation was made by Steven Ma, who was the CEO of Metro Radio at the time. It was decided that the show would start on May 29, Leung said.
After Ma announced he was leaving Metro Radio in May, Leung said he sought clarification from the head of Metro Info Live about whether the show would go on. He was told it would launch as scheduled and that an advertisement for it had already aired on Monday.
However, Leung said he received a call from the head of Metro Info Live on Wednesday afternoon, saying Metro Radio’s new management had decided to halt the relaunch.
This is just after gay carnival Pink Dot gets cancelled for the second year in a row after failing to get official permits. And seven months after Hong Kong Pride’s Rainbow Festival was postponed after the government decided the venue area needed urgent construction work.
There are puritan nationalistic and fundamentalist Christian elements with longstanding hang-ups about gay rights, and they are no doubt happy to see these sorts of events being cancelled. But they are not the ones making the decisions. The intolerance is not simply for gay-themed events but for a whole range of civil society activity – independent unions, political parties, bookstore classes, protests about the Wang Fuk Court tragedy, Tiananmen vigils, etc. Such activities are not illegal, but so many bureaucratic or other hurdles mysteriously arise that they can’t happen.
What they have in common is: they involve actual or possible gatherings of people; they have some sort of potential political angle; and they are not under any form of government/United Front oversight.
So – it’s nothing personal!
Via Samuel Bickett, the Justice Dept issues a memo to all staff threatening to discipline anyone found leaking information about the new Director of Public Prosecutions. A leaked memo.
Surely I’m not the only one here who thought this was going to be about someone called Enoch Lo.
Japan gets HKers on dining and tchotchke shopping safaris and polite society watching. Shenzhen gets authentic Chinese fare foodies and budget shag hotel weekenders trying to stretch their kala. Taiwan gets pink dollar spenders and outdoorsy types tired of over regulated and over concreted trails, looking for hot springs, amazing gorges and seaside B&Bs in surfer towns.
HK remains full of rent seekers looking for marks and to finally decimate the concepts of value-for-money and quirky local neighborhoods.
Definitely nothing personal.